


My Eyes Adored You

by Bat_Crap_Crazy



Category: Big Brother RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-09-10
Packaged: 2019-05-13 21:54:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 51,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14756999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bat_Crap_Crazy/pseuds/Bat_Crap_Crazy
Summary: As small children, Frankie and Zach swore they would be together forever.  Circumstances beyond their control tore them apart.  After years of having no contact, they find themselves face-to-face again.Inspired by the movie, "The Boy Downstairs".





	1. Chapter 1

            Frankie sighed and hung up his phone. He got out of the car and put his phone in his pocket. He rubbed his neck and then took the hose from the gas pump. He filled up his tank and replaced the hose. Then he walked into the station and grabbed one of their large dinner salads from the cooler. Ordinarily he wouldn’t eat gas station food, but he knew the couple who ran the place. Grace prepared the salads in the back every afternoon. Her fiancé Dale ran the station that he had inherited from his uncle. Frankie had met Grace in his public speaking class his first semester of college and they had became very good friends. They never had any other classes together but they stayed close. Grace was studying to become an elementary school teacher and Frankie was a biology major, studying to become a doctor. He was also a dance and theater major. And he took voice lessons on the side. He sighed again. This was the reason for his present state of unrest. His boyfriend, Kyle, was pissed at him because he had to study instead of going with him to a party. He understood Kyle’s point. College was supposed to be fun too, but Frankie didn’t have time right now to concentrate on the fun part of it. He had never intended to become a triple major…it just kind of happened, but now that he was, he couldn’t afford to slack off. His mind went back over the conversation they had just had.

            _“Do you know what they call a student that graduates med school with a D?” Kyle asked him with what sounded to Frankie like gritted teeth._

_“No. A failure?” Frankie guessed._

_“No! They call the person ‘Doctor’! Just like they call the straight A students! As long as you pass that’s all that matters! If you can’t find the time to relax and have some fun with me every once in a while…I don’t know. Maybe you should drop the voice lessons, and one of your majors. I’m serious, Frankie…something’s got to go. If you don’t, the thing you may have to give up is me!”_ Kyle had hung up on him after that _._

            “You look a million miles away, Frankie. Rough day?” Dale asked from the register. Somehow Frankie had made his way there while lost in his thoughts.

            “Yeah, a little bit,” Frankie said with a faint smile as he paid the total.

            “Do you want that in the bag?” Dale asked looking at the item in Frankie’s hand.

            Frankie looked at it in confusion. “No, I’ll just put it in my pocket. Did you scan it?”

            Dale laughed, “You handed it to me and I scanned it and handed it back to you. You are running on autopilot, aren’t you?”

            “I guess so.” Frankie shook his head, “I took an extra voice lesson today and I have a test tomorrow and Kyle wants us to go out tonight. I turned him down because I need to study. He isn’t taking it well.”

            Dale nodded. “I used to be like that with Grace. She stood her ground and took the time she needed for her studies.” He laughed, “As you can see, I didn’t leave her for it. I learned to respect her needs. Don’t let Kyle make you feel guilty; if he loves you, he will learn to deal with being in a relationship with a multi-talented genius!”

            Frankie gave him a small smile as he picked up the bag from the counter, “Thanks. I needed that.”

            Once he returned to the car, he laid the bag down on his passenger seat and dropped the item he had clutched in his hand down into the cup holder in his center console. He stared at it as if it were a wild animal about to attack him.

            He slid on his sunglasses and he could suddenly smell it. The hand that had carried it must have picked up its scent. He shook his head in disgust with himself. He thought he had gotten over this by now. He sighed. It did stand to reason that he would reach for it though. He was going through a lot of stress—Kyle, exams, a big performance for the school where he was to sing an old song of Frankie Valli’s, and a recent move.

            He turned his music up loud and drove home, the entire trip he managed not to look at the center console. He knew his mind had been wandering a bit earlier so he focused intently on the road.

            He parked in his numbered spot in the parking lot outside his new apartment building. As he opened his car door he was hit with the smell of newly cut grass and the sound of a lawnmower. There was a small common ground for the residents to share and the maintenance person kept it very nice. Frankie often sat out there for a while in the late evenings to unwind a bit before going to bed.

            That was one of the perks to living there as opposed to the dorm, where he had been living previously. His roommate, Mew (short for Bartholomew, a name he hated) was a quiet person who was as dedicated to his studies as Frankie was. Mew had had three different roommates in the past, but all had found someone special and had moved out. Mew joked that the apartment was either blessed or cursed, he wasn’t sure which. When Frankie signed the lease, he assured Mew that he would not be running out on it to go live with his boyfriend. Kyle was in a fraternity and there was no way that he would move out of the frat house voluntarily. Frankie confided that someone was probably going to have to drag him out of it once he graduated.

            Frankie adored Mew’s girlfriend, Candace. She was taking classes to become a registered nurse and was working at a nursing home as a nursing assistant to pay her way through school. The little free time she had, she spent with Mew. In the mornings when it was just Frankie and Mew, they had a tendency to grab a bowl of cereal on their way out the door, but when Candace stayed overnight, they all worked together in the kitchen fixing huge breakfasts. Candace reminded Frankie a bit of his younger sister, so her presence made the apartment feel more like home.

            He hoped she would be in the apartment when he got there; his stress was making him crave a touch of home. He noticed that the sound of the lawn mower had stopped by the time reached in the backseat and gathered up his books. He put the bag containing his dinner on his books and backed out of the car. He used his elbow to shut the car door and his eye fell on the center console. He stared at it for a moment and then unlocked his door and reached in a grabbed it. He reasoned that if he didn’t, with the car all closed up, that smell was going to be everywhere. He would rather smell it if and when he chose too. He shoved it into the front pocket of his pants and went into the apartment building.

            He was alone in the elevator as he rode to his floor. As soon as he got out, he heard it going back down. He shifted his arms a bit to keep his dinner from falling off his books as he walked to his apartment door. He grimaced when he realized that his keys were in his pants pocket and he didn’t have a hand free to dig them out. He tapped on the door with his elbow and listened hopefully for a response. When none came, he realized that Mew was probably at work, and he bent over and sat his books and dinner on the floor. The elevator opened and he turned to see a man getting off the elevator and heading in the opposite direction. He was wearing a tool belt and carrying a ladder. He assumed it was the maintenance person. Frankie couldn’t see his face but he liked everything he did see. The man disappeared from view and Frankie fished his keys out of his pocket and let himself into the apartment. He went directly to his room and dropped everything on his bed. He opened his drawer on his bedside table and dropped the item in there and closed it firmly.

            He ate his dinner while highlighting the parts of the previous chapters that he felt certain would be on the test. As quickly as he could, he did his assignments for his other classes, and then pushed those books aside and picked back up the textbook that he had highlighted earlier. He reread the chapters in case there was something he had omitted from the highlights and decided he had hit all the important parts. Mew popped his head in the room once, to let Frankie know that he was home. Around midnight Kyle sent Frankie some pictures of himself from the party. Kyle was obviously flirting with a few of the guys in the pictures. Frankie knew it was in an attempt to make him jealous and feel bad for not coming to the party. Frankie was surprised to find that it didn’t really bother him to see Kyle hanging around other guys. He shut his phone off and cleared the books off his bed. He shut his light off and lay down upon the bed, staring at the patterns on the ceiling caused by a streetlight that shined its light through the leaves on the tree outside his window.

            Frankie knew that his relationship with Kyle was coming to an end. They were very different types of people and they couldn’t seem to find a way to bridge the gap. Frankie knew that Kyle had just been blowing off steam when he told Frankie that he was going to have to make a choice between his studies and Kyle, but Frankie knew that the real ultimatum was coming. He didn’t have to think twice about what he would pick—Frankie wanted someone in his corner, cheering him on, and encouraging him to be all that he could be. That person was not, could never be, Kyle.

            He looked at the drawer on his bedside table and thought about what he had bought. It made a certain kind of sense since he was going through so much stress—lots of people have items they use to comfort themselves, things like teddy bears or pillows to cuddle. He knew it wasn’t just stress though. When he had been assigned to sing the Frankie Valli song, “My Eyes Adored You”, he had assumed it was the song from ‘Jersey Boys’, but when he read the lyrics he was to sing, he realized that the song had been heavily edited for the show. He was to sing the original song, which told an entirely different story than the one in the show had. He had tried to get out of it, which was unlike him to do, but the director wouldn’t hear of it. He sang it for the first time today in rehearsals, and a line near the end of it almost made him break down sobbing. He thought of the line again and his throat tightened—‘ _I know I won’t ever forget you, my childhood friend’_. He took a deep breath and wiped his eyes. “Fuck it,” he muttered as he reached into his drawer and pulled it out. He grabbed the tab and unwound it and removed the top. He brought the gum up to his nose and breathed in deeply, and lost himself in the memory of the first time he had smelled it.

 

            _Frankie walked away from the group of kids with his head down. He saw another boy sitting alone on the bench. The other boy was crying. Frankie walked over and sat next to him._

_“They wouldn’t let me play either,” Frankie said by way of greeting._

_The little boy raised his tear-stained face and looked at him in shock. “Why not?”_

_Frankie shrugged. “They said I am too little; that I am a baby.”_

_“You’re not a baby! The school wouldn’t let you come to Kindergarten if you were a baby! They’re just mean! They wouldn’t let me play because they said I was too fat and that I would kill them if I fell on them.” He reached up and wiped the tears from his face and left a dirt trial across his cheeks._

_“You’re not fat, just a bit round, that’s all. I bet they were just afraid that you could make more baskets than they can!” Frankie declared. “They really are mean. I am glad they wouldn’t let me play with them. I don’t want to be their friend anyway!”_

_“Me either! I would be your friend though. You’re nice!”_

_“Really? Then we will be buddies, okay? Just me and you. We don’t need them.” Frankie said, patting the boy’s arm._

_“Yeah! Just me and you!” The little boy declared, slinging his arm around Frankie’s shoulders. With his other hand he rummaged around in the back pocket of his pants. He pulled out a stick of gum that was warm and wrinkled from being hidden there. He pulled his arm off Frankie’s shoulders and broke the stick of gum into two equal halves and handed one to Frankie._

_Frankie took the gum and he smelled it. “Oh, this smells good! What flavor is it?”_

_“It’s the best gum in the whole wide world! Haven’t you ever had it before? It’s Juicy Fruit!”_

_“No, I’m not allowed to have gum at home,” Frankie admitted._

_“Well, you aren’t at home now, so you can have it!”_

_“But the teacher said…” Frankie started._

_“It doesn’t matter what the teacher said if you don’t get caught!” The boy popped his half of the gum in his mouth. “See, you chew it when the teacher isn’t looking. When she looks at you, you hide it under your tongue! Easy Peasy Piece of Cheesy!” He grinned at Frankie._

_Frankie laughed and unwrapped his part of the gum. His eyes darted around quickly to make sure no one was looking and then he put it in his mouth. As he chewed on it, his eyes lit up. “Oh, this is good! I love it!”_

_“Told you so! Best gum in the world!”_

_The bell signaling the end of recess rang. The teachers were standing next to the school wall, calling their students to them so that they could enter in as a group. Frankie and the boy got up and started towards their teacher. “Remember,” the boy whispered, “hide it under your tongue when she looks at you!”_

_Frankie nodded and then stopped. “I don’t know your name!”_

_The boy grinned, “I’m Zach. What’s your name?”_

_Frankie grinned and extended his hand, “I’m Frankie, pleased to meet you!”_

_Zach took Frankie’s hand in his and shook it vigorously. Frankie asked, “And we are going to be together forever, right?”_

_Zach nodded, “Yes, me and you forever, no matter what!”_

 

            Frankie smiled to himself in the dark. They hadn’t lasted ten minutes before they were caught with the gum. They were put in the time-out chairs directly across the room from each other. Frankie was humiliated. He privately called these chairs ‘the bad kids’ seats’ and had just that morning declared to himself that he would never sit in one of them. Whenever he would look in Zach’s direction, Zach would flash him a huge grin. He seemed to be taking the experience as an adventure. After a few times of seeing Zach grinning, Frankie grinned back.

            From the first day of Kindergarten until the last day of eighth grade, they had been inseparable. Frankie’s mother used to joke and say that every weekend she either had two sons in the house, or no sons. Frankie had never imagined those days would end, but they had. He frowned at the memory that tried to come forward and pushed it away. He needed comfort, so he remembered all the mornings, either at his house or Zach’s, where they would sit crossed legged, side-by-side, eating cereal as they watched “SpongeBob” together, planning that day’s adventures.


	2. Chapter 2

            The next day was his test and Frankie breezed through it, as was usual for him. He inwardly laughed at himself for being so stressed over it. However, he knew that he would stress out just as much over the next one, which was also usual for him.

            The test had been scheduled early that day, and once Frankie was finished with it, he had the rest of the afternoon free. It was such a rarity for him that he felt as if he had been given a gift. He decided he would go back to the apartment and get in some extra study time while he did his laundry.

            Back at the apartment, he parked in his numbered space. He grabbed the gum from his console and tucked it into his pocket and hurried into the building. He hoped he could get all of his laundry done before the other tenants returned from their classes or jobs. He let himself into his apartment and hurriedly gathered up all of his dirty clothes into a laundry basket. He decided to also wash the clothes he was wearing, so he took his keys and the gum out of his pocket and laid them on his bedside table.

            Once he had accepted that it was okay to give in and smell the gum, he found that he didn’t intend to stop. He would never chew it though. He wasn’t even tempted. He wanted to keep his last memory of the taste of it untainted in his mind.

            He added his clothes to the basket and he pulled on some shorts with a tank top and stepped into his flip flops. Although classes had started a few weeks earlier, summer didn’t seem to be finished with them yet.

            He gathered up his basket of dirty clothes and his detergent and headed to the elevator. He rode down to the basement where the tenants’ laundry room was located. As the elevator doors opened he saw the owner of the building, Daphne Roberts, taping up an “Out Of Order” sign on the door of the laundry room. She turned to him when she heard the elevator doors open.

            “Oh Frankie! I’m sorry, Dear! We have had a bit of a flood in the laundry room. We are waiting on the plumber to arrive.” She joined Frankie in the elevator and pushed the button for her floor. “I have my own washer and dryer. You can use them!”

            “That’s not necessary! I can wait until the laundry room reopens. I have the afternoon free and…” Frankie objected.

            “You do?” Daphne asked enthusiastically.

            “Um…yeah,” Frankie answered, slightly taken aback by her response.

            “I wonder if you would…” she stopped, bit her lip and shook her head. “No, never mind.”

            “What is it?” Frankie asked, confused by her change in expressions.

            “It’s nothing. Just a foolish notion I had,” she said as the doors of the elevator slid open on her floor. She stepped out ahead of him and led the way to her apartment door. She had the door unlocked and ushered him inside before he could object.

            “It’s okay, really! I am in no hurry to do my laundry. I can wait…” he insisted.

            “Nonsense!” she cut him off. “My laundry room is right through here.”

            He followed her through the apartment. It took up the entire top floor of the building and her walls were mostly floor-to-ceiling windows. He was amused to see that she had a large collection of Donald Duck figurines paired with figurines of Daffy Duck displayed throughout. When they entered the laundry room, he saw that she even had them displayed on a shelf there too.

            He couldn’t think of a way to get out doing his laundry there, so he put his clothes into her machine and started the wash cycle. “So…it looks like you are a fan of cartoon ducks,” he said after searching his mind for something to talk to her about. He had only met her twice before—when he looked at Mew’s apartment the first time, and when he signed the lease. They had hardly spoken either time.

            She walked over and picked up a Donald Duck figurine and looked at it lovingly. “Yes, my late husband and I collected these together. My first name is Daphne, but his nickname for me was Daffy. His name was Donald…so…” she gestured towards the ducks and laughed. “It’s silly, I know.”

            “No!” Frankie said earnestly, “I think it’s lovely!”

            “He’s been gone for three years now and I just can’t seem to bear the idea of…I don’t know…putting them into storage or giving them away. I need them around me. I feel as if a part of him is still with me when I see them.”

            Frankie’s mind flashed to the opened pack of Juicy Fruit gum on his bedside table. “I understand. And for what it’s worth, if they give you comfort, I think you should keep them displayed.”

            She studied his face for a moment and then reached out and patted his arm. “Somehow I felt like you would understand. The machine has a buzzer to let us know when the load is finished so we don’t have to spend time in here. I’ll make some tea and we can chat and get to know each other better, okay?”

            “Okay! That sounds like fun! I had intended to study this afternoon but I am ahead in most of my classes. I think a break might actually do me some good.”

            She gave him a dazzling smile. “I’m sure it will! You know what they say, ‘All work and no play…’”

            “`Makes Jack a dull boy’”, he answered.

            Still smiling, she nodded. “Exactly! And we don’t want you to become a ‘dull boy’! Follow me!”

            She led them to the kitchen and Frankie sat down at the counter and watched her scurrying around the kitchen, preparing their tea. The name ‘Jack’ kept echoing in his mind. Suddenly, he could hear children’s mocking voices reciting together:

_“Jack Sprat could eat no fat, His wife could eat no lean, And so betwixt the two of them, They licked the platter clean!”_

_It was cold; they were bundled up in their winter coats and hats. The teacher had been reading nursery rhymes to the class since school had begun in the fall. This was the most recent one that she had read to them and it struck a note with the students. They used it to taunt Frankie and Zach on the playground._

_Frankie and Zach broke away from the kids who had circled them while reciting it. They wandered over to the empty playground next to theirs. It was for the big kids and technically they weren’t supposed to be there, but they had gone a few times before then and hadn’t gotten into trouble for it._

_“Well at least you have a name, ‘Jack’; I am just called ‘his wife’.” Zach grumbled as he picked up a basketball and threw it though the hoop. The basket was regulation height, while the one in the little kids’ section was much lower to the ground. Frankie was always impressed when he saw that Zach was able to score in the regulation basket._

_“Just in the American version of it. In the version from England, there is a lot more to it. And the wife’s name is Joan, like my mommy’s name,” Frankie said proudly._

_Zach dribbled the ball in one place for a few moments. “You sure are smart, Frankie! I bet you are smarter than anyone in this school…and that is including the teachers!”_

_Frankie blushed. “I just like to learn new things, that’s all.”_

_“Since Jack Sprat’s wife is named Joan, and since that is your mom’s name…I won’t get mad when they call us those names anymore,” Zach said decidedly._

_“Good. If we get mad, it will make them do it more,” Frankie said with a nod._

_Zach bounced the ball towards Frankie, “Your turn.”_

_Frankie looked up at the tall basket and licked his lips. “I can’t do it, Zach. I’m too small.”_

_“Frankie, I think you can do anything you set your mind to. Try it! If you can’t, I won’t laugh at ya; I promise!”_

_Frankie nodded and then he threw the ball. He didn’t even get the ball up near the basket. “See, I can’t do it. I’m just a baby.”_

_“No you’re not! I told you, they don’t let babies into Kindergarten!” Zach retrieved the ball and handed it to Frankie. “Hold onto it,” he ordered and then he went behind Frankie and put his hands under Frankie’s arms and lifted him up. “Shoot it now,” he said with a voice that was strained because of all the strength it took to pick Frankie up._

_Frankie threw the ball and watched in amazement when it went through the hoop. “We did it!” he called to Zach excitedly._

 

            Daphne quietly sat a filled teacup down in front of Frankie. When he looked up at her, she smiled. “Wherever you were just then, I hope it was pleasant.”

            Frankie gave a small nod, “Parts of it was.”

            She placed a platter of cookies down and selected one for herself. Frankie took a drink from his tea. “Earlier, downstairs by the tenant laundry room, you started to ask me for something. You have piqued my curiosity.”

            She blushed and waved her hand. “No, I can’t ask. It was just some silliness.”

            “I promise, if I think it is silly or if it is an imposition, I will say ‘no’, okay?”

            She laid her cookie on her napkin and brushed the crumbs from her hands. She looked up at Frankie and blushed even harder than she had before. “I met Donald when I was still in college. I was 22 and he was 45. Believe me when I tell you, the differences in our ages shocked a lot of people. He was an archaeologist and had come to the campus to give a lecture. At the time, I wasn’t even interested in archaeology but my roommate was. She wanted someone to go to the lecture with her, so I did.” She smiled and took a sip from her cup. She looked back up at Frankie with her eyes sparkling. “I never believed in love at first sight before then, but after that lecture I did.”

            Frankie smiled at her. “And did he feel the same way?”

            She laughed. “Not that night. I was only a member of the audience and he didn’t see me. A few days later, he came into the restaurant where I was working as a server. He had a flight that evening and had decided to eat dinner before going to the airport. Luckily he was seated in my station. After I took his order, I told him that I had attended his lecture and had been so impressed by it that I had checked out one of his books from the campus library.” She laughed, “I could hear myself gushing over him like he was a rock star, but I couldn’t seem to stop. Anyway, immediately after he finished his dinner, he left for the airport. A few weeks later a package arrived at my dorm. He had sent me a copy of each of his books and had autographed them. I was stunned. I hadn’t even given him my name so I had no idea how he knew where to send them to me.”

            Frankie was intrigued. He poured them each another cup of tea from the teapot on the table. “Did you ever find out how he had tracked you down?”

            “Eventually I did, but not for a while.” She said while stirring some sugar into her cup. “At the time, I was mystified, and terribly flattered. I sent a ‘thank you’ card to the address on the package. I assumed it was his publisher’s address and I figured it would get mixed in with his fan mail and he would never see it.” She laughed. “It wasn’t his publisher’s address, it was his home address. He wrote me back immediately. We continued as something akin to a pen pal relationship for the last six months I was in school. Now, you are probably wondering why we didn’t give each other our numbers and just talk on the phone. It would have been more convenient, I’ll admit, but neither one of us ever did. I saved his letters and he saved mine. I still have them and on days when I get especially lonesome for him, I take them out and I read them.”

            Frankie gave a little sigh, “That’s beautiful. I am so glad you have them to give you comfort.”

            “I am, too. If we had communicated by phone…well, I am glad we didn’t. Anyway, I invited him to my graduation and he came. He met my parents,” she stopped and laughed. “I believe they must have thought he was one of my professors, based on their reactions later. You see, I told Donald that I wanted to be with him. He wanted me to go out and explore the world first because I was so young, but I wouldn’t hear of it. So he told me that the only way we could be together was if we were married. I grabbed a few of my friends before they left the campus, and they, along with my parents, were there when I married him in the campus chapel the afternoon after graduation. We spent a little over thirty years together before he had the stroke that took him from me. I swear, I think I fell in love with him a little bit more every day. I never regretted anything that I might have missed out on—I was an English major and the two of us traveled the world together. I helped him write his books. The books he had written previously were filled with facts—but they were a bit like reading a textbook. After I started co-authoring them, the general public became more interested in reading them. I even wrote quite a few novels under a pseudonym and a number of them did very well. We were never blessed with children, so it was always just the two of us. When Donald neared his seventies, he decided it was time for us to settle in one spot. We bought this building. It had a few older tenants in it and Donald enjoyed their companionship. I had wanted to rent the remaining apartments to younger people, preferably students from the college, but Donald wanted to be surrounded by people near his own age,” she stopped and laughed, “We never discussed politics, but I often suspected that when we went into the voting booths, our votes cancelled each other’s out. After he died, whenever an apartment became empty, I would post a notice on the bulletin board on campus and except for three apartments, not including my own, the building is now filled with young people.”

            Frankie smiled at her, “Your story is beautiful. It sounds like you have the kind of love that most people dream of but seldom find. And speaking of ‘finding’, how did Donald find you to send his books to you?”

            She blushed and bit her lip, “One of the professors at the college was a personal friend of his—which is why Donald had agreed to give a lecture there. He came to the campus a short time after our conversation to visit for the weekend. I found out later that he came to the restaurant a few times to see if I was working, but I wasn’t there that weekend. I had taken the time off because I had a small part in a play at the campus. He didn’t know that, but he attended the play with the professor and he saw me and found my name in the program. From there it was easy for the two of them to find out what dorm I was in—although they did break a few rules doing it!”

            Frankie laughed, “Since you have told me your story now, are you going to tell me what you wanted me to help you with?”

            She grinned and then shrugged, “I kind of did.” She got up and hurried to a cabinet and pulled out a binder and brought it to the table. “I know that you are a theater major. The only thing I might have missed a bit during my marriage was acting. I’m not saying I was wonderful at it, but I enjoyed it immensely. There is a small amateur production that is holding auditions next week, and I was thinking about maybe trying out for a part. Do you think that is silly? The role is for the mother of the lead, and it isn’t a big part, but it is integral to the play. Just reading it over, I feel like I know this woman. Like maybe she is like how I would have been if I would have had children. It’s a comedy…I’m sorry, I’m rambling!”

            “You’re not rambling—you are excited! If it makes you this thrilled just thinking about it, you have to audition!” Frankie said while beaming at her.

            “I haven’t acted in anything for over thirty years. I wondered…well, I hoped…that maybe you could…if you didn’t mind, that is…will you help me go over the lines?”

            “I would love to! I am honored that you asked me! Have you got your part memorized?” Frankie said, picking up the binder.

            They spent the rest of the afternoon working on her lines, even while they were doing Frankie’s laundry and folding his clothes, fresh and warm from the dryer. Frankie played every other character in the scenes to help her get a working knowledge of the flow of the dialogue. Finally, after a few hours of practice, Frankie sat up Daphne’s digital camera on the table, propped up by a stack of books. He had Daphne to sit in the vision field of the lens and he moved himself off camera. He set the camera to record video and fed her cues for her lines.

            Later they transferred the video to Daphne’s computer. They made notes about facial expressions, vocal inflections, and body movements. There was a scene where Daphne was supposed to be very skeptical of something she was hearing. She had to tilt her head to show her feelings, but it was difficult to determine the correct angle that would convey her feelings to the audience. Too slight it wouldn’t be noticed and too much would appear as if she had developed a broken neck somehow.

            They were working this out when Frankie’s phone rang. He fished it out of his pocket and saw that it was Kyle. He noticed the time and flinched. “If you don’t mind, I need to take this,” he said. He walked back towards the laundry room before answering.

            “So…do I even need to bother asking why you didn’t come watch me at football practice?” Kyle said as soon as Frankie answered. “Let me guess…`something came up’, right?”

            “Actually…yes. I was doing my laundry and helping a friend learn some lines for an audition and…I…uh, I lost track of time,” Frankie admitted with a grimace.

            “‘You lost track of time’. Okay. Well, _this_ is one of your more creative excuses. It isn’t ever going to claim the fame of ‘my dog ate my homework’ or ‘the check is in the mail’, but it could probably make it to the top ten list.” Kyle said with a sarcastic bite to his voice. “Frankie…I’ve told you how important it is to me to have you come to my practices and games! Every week it is a new excuse. I swear—you act like you have no time for me in your life at all!” Kyle began to list all the times that Frankie had let him down, either by not being there or by leaving early from an event.

            Frankie couldn’t say anything in his own defense because he knew Kyle was right. Frankie didn’t treat Kyle like he was a priority. And really, there was no excuse for it.

            Frankie could hear Daphne’s voice from the living room. She was talking to someone. He could hear the low rumble of a man’s voice. Frankie eased back into the living room, allowing Kyle to continue uninterrupted. He leaned his shoulder against the wall and looked at two of the duck figurines on a book shelf next to him. He could tell that Daphne had recently dusted, but she missed a spot on Daffy’s bill. Frankie ran his finger over it and wiped the dust off.

            The sound of the man’s laugh caused Frankie to look towards the door where Daphne was standing. He could only see the feet and legs of the man she was talking to. Frankie assumed it was the maintenance man. The previous day in the hallway, when Frankie had been trying to fish his apartment key from his pocket, he had seen the man leaving the elevator, headed in the opposite direction. Frankie thought the man at the door was wearing the same boots as he had seen then.

            Kyle’s lecture in his ear had stopped, so Frankie turned to walk back into the laundry room so that he could talk in private. The pause was only momentary though as Kyle collected up his next round of ammunition to hurl at Frankie.

            Frankie turned back towards the living room with an inward sigh. He looked back at Daphne at the door and smiled as he noticed she was making similar gestures like the ones they had been practicing. He vaguely wondered if those were natural to her or if she was still in character. It was hard to gauge since he really only had this afternoon’s acquaintanceship with her to base it on.

            As he was studying her, she stepped to the side to open the door and he caught sight of the man she was speaking to. Frankie allowed his gaze to slide over the man. From what Frankie could see, he looked very muscular and attractive. Frankie moved a few feet forward and a bit to the side so he could get a better view. At this angle, Frankie could see the man’s profile.

            His mouth went dry and he almost dropped his phone. He knew this profile! He had seen it at least a million times! He hurried across the room toward him.

            “Zach! Is it really you?” Frankie almost screamed the words in his excitement.

            “Zach? Who’s Zach?!” Kyle shouted in the phone Frankie had managed to juggle back up to his ear.

            The man at the door turned his face towards Frankie’s voice. “Hello Frankie. How are you?” He looked back to Daphne, “If that’s all you need for me to do now, I really should get going. I have a class this evening.”

            Daphne assured him that he had done enough and with a slight nod in Frankie’s direction, Zach left.

            “Frankie! Answer me! Who the hell is Zach?” Kyle demanded.

            “I…I have to go now. I’ll call you back,” Frankie stammered. He slumped down in the chair nearest him. His legs didn’t seem to want to hold his weight for much longer.

            “NO! If you hang up on me, I swear to God, we are done!” Kyle threatened.

            “Yes, I agree. Good luck, Kyle. You deserve to have everything you want; I am just not the person who can give it to you.”

            “What?!” Kyle screamed into the phone.


	3. Chapter 3

            Frankie disconnected the call and then turned off the ringer. He looked up at Daphne who was hovering close to him. “The maintenance man is Zach Rance?”

            “Yes, he is a student at the college and he works here in exchange for free rent and a small weekly salary. Do you know him from school?”

            Frankie nodded slowly, “Not college, but yes, the first time I met him was at school.”

            “I’m sorry but I couldn’t help overhearing. Did you and your boyfriend just break up?” Daphne asked.

            Frankie looked down at the phone in his hand. “Um, yeah. It’s for the best. We really aren’t suited for each other. He’s a great guy, just not the one for me.”

            “Are you sure? You look quite distraught,” she commiserated.

            “Yes, I’m sure. It’s been coming on for a while now,” Frankie said. He looked towards the door at the spot where Zach had been standing a few moments before. “He didn’t seem surprised to see me.”

            Daphne followed his gaze, “You mean Zach? Well, no, I don’t suppose he would be. He has a list of the tenants and he is the one who puts the name labels on the mailboxes and assigns the parking spaces.” She looked back to see that Frankie had not stopped his examination of the door. “I have an idea—it’s getting late. Why don’t you let me fix you something to eat?”

            Frankie turned to look at her and gave her a ghost of a smile. “That’s not necessary; I’m not really hungry. I think I should be heading back to my apartment now.”

            “Nonsense! You gave up your free afternoon to help me; it’s the least I could do to repay you. And…to be honest, I would really enjoy having someone to eat dinner with.”

            Frankie could tell by her eyes that she was serious; she really wanted him to stay. He nodded. “Thank you. I would love to join you for dinner.”

            She led him to the table and he sat in the seat he had sat in earlier in the day. She promised that she would whip up something quick and disappeared into the kitchen. Frankie sat lost in thought until he startled when she placed a cup near him.

            “It’s chamomile tea. You look like you need it more than regular tea,” she said before going back into the kitchen.

            A short time later she came back carrying a tray. She sat it down at the end of the table and brought Frankie a plate of food from it. He was surprised to see scrambled eggs and cinnamon toast.

            She laughed at his expression. “I know! Breakfast for dinner seems odd, but whenever Donald or I had a bad day, this is the meal that we would fix. It is very comforting.”

            Frankie smiled, “That’s really sweet. Thank you for sharing your tradition with me.”

            During the meal they shared a bit of small talk, but as soon as they finished, Daphne stacked the dishes on the tray and poured them each another cup of chamomile tea. “I am ready to listen if you are willing to talk,” she said.

            Frankie shrugged, “What do you want me to talk about?”

            “Well, you were visibly upset a while ago, but it apparently wasn’t over your breakup with your boyfriend. This leads me to believe it was about Zach. I know you don’t really know me, and maybe you would prefer to confide in someone else, but I am here and I keep secrets very well!”

            Frankie sighed, “There really isn’t much to tell. We used to be very close when we were younger. He moved away and we haven’t had any contact in years. I was happy to see him and he acted as if he couldn’t care less. End of story.”

            Daphne nodded. “Okay, so you gave me the skeleton of the story. Would you mind fattening it up a bit?”

            Frankie rubbed his hand over his face, pinched the bridge of his nose, and took a deep breath. “We met at recess on the first day of Kindergarten. The other kids wouldn’t let us play with them because they said I was too small and he was too big.”

            “That’s awful! Oh, you poor babies!”

            “We found each other and made a pact that we would stick together, no matter what. We both kept our word, which if you think about it, that’s kind of amazing for two 5-year-olds. But we found that we had a lot in common, and what we didn’t have in common, we had complimentary. For instance, he was always one to ‘color outside the lines’ a bit, if you know what I mean. I, on the other hand, colored rigidly inside the lines. He could get me to loosen up a bit, and I could get him to chill out a bit. We just worked well together.”

            “And the other kids? Did they pick on you?”

            Frankie scoffed good-naturedly, “Of course they did! They actually seemed to make a game out of coming up with names for us—the first I remember was Jack Spratt and his wife, but there were a lot more—Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet, Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, and for a while in third grade they said we looked like the number 10. I had grown a bit taller over the summer but I hadn’t managed to gain weight so it made me look a lot skinnier than I had.” Frankie grew quiet and then he gave her a small smile. “It was also in third grade that a local TV channel in our area was celebrating some kind of anniversary of their being on the air. For a month they showed old sitcoms and movies. That’s how the kids at our school became acquainted with Abbott and Costello—so you can imagine.”

            “Oh no, they didn’t! Ugh! I wish I could smack the shit out of them!” Daphne declared hotly with flashing eyes.

            Frankie barked out a laugh in surprise at her reaction. “Actually, that was always something Zach wanted to do, too! But, well…that didn’t feel like the right path to me. I thought it would be better to beat them at their own game. So I came up with a plan.”

            Daphne’s eyes sparkled as she leaned forward to hear. “What?”

            “`He’s on second’”, Frankie replied with a huge grin.

            Daphne gave Frankie a perplexed frown which he returned with a laugh. “Have you ever seen Abbott and Costello’s routine ‘Who’s On First’?”

            “I don’t think so…I’m not sure,” she frowned as she searched her memory.

            Frankie got up and retrieved Daphne’s laptop. He brought it back to the table and searched for the clip. He grinned when he saw it listed. “I watched this about a million times and wrote it down word for word.” Frankie pushed ‘Play’ and they watched together.

            By the end of it, Daphne was doubled over laughing and trying to wipe the tears of laughter from her eyes. “I have to pee!” she squealed and jumped up from her chair and ran to the bathroom.

            When she returned, her face still had the glow of merriment. “So…tell me your story about the routine now! I am dying to hear!”

            Frankie had been lost in his memories during her absence and it took him a few seconds to return to present time. “Every year our school had a talent contest at the end of the year. I admit this part is kind of dirty—I signed me and Zach up to do a comedy routine without telling him. I knew he would say ‘no’ if I asked; so I didn’t ask.” Frankie said with a laugh. “The contest was about a month away and he didn’t think he could learn it in time, but I believed he could. We practiced every free moment we had.”

            “And…” Daphne prompted when Frankie paused.

            “And…we did it for the contest. Zach was freaking out about it backstage; one of the worst cases of stage fright I have ever seen. I told him to ignore the crowd and just talk to me, like we had rehearsed it. When we went out on stage, I admit I had some doubts about whether he would do it or not…but he was amazing! Actually…flawless. It was like he became Lou Costello. After that I tried to get him to join an acting class with me but he wasn’t interested in it. It’s a shame too because I really felt like he had a gift for it.”

            “Did you win the contest?”

            Frankie sighed and shook his head. “The contest was supposed to be just for the students, but there were a lot of parents present. Mine and Zach’s included. We did get a lot of votes, but the principal’s daughter won first place. I’m not saying the principal stacked the audience with votes for her—but he did.” Frankie laughed. “We came in second place. My mother filmed it and gave a copy of it to Zach’s mom. Every time there was some kind of gathering at my house, my mom would show it to everybody. I’m sure it was the same at Zach’s.”

            “The kids…did they still pick on you after that?”

            “If this was a fictional book or movie, we would have won first place and all of the kids would have immediately realized they were wrong to have been so cruel to us. But, this is real life, so yes, some of them still did—but not all. Some of the kids would come around us at recess and ask us to do the routine and usually we would do it for them. School ended for the summer shortly after the talent contest. During that summer, I got accepted into a dance/drama program that was a lot more intense than the one I had been in. I had to train pretty much all the time. Zach started hanging out with a group of ‘sporty’ type of guys and he was often busy playing some kind of sports games with them. But even with our other interests and friends, Zach and I never backed off our relationship; we always had time for the other. By the time we entered fourth grade that year, I had built up some muscle and Zach had burned off the baby pudge—and I’m not sure if I was ever clear about this—he was never really fat. But anyway, by the first day of fourth grade, the bullies didn’t really have anything bad to say about us, so they finally left us alone.”

            Daphne nodded, “Good! So, what happened after that?”

            Frankie shrugged, “I don’t know…just life, really. We survived elementary school and moved on to middle school. Zach was on a few teams and I went to all his games; I moved up the ladder in my dance and drama classes and he came to all my performances. We still spent all our free time together. And then, after our 8th grade graduation, Zach’s mom landed a great job in Florida and he moved away.”

            “And you’ve had no contact since? That seems rather odd for teenagers. You all seem to excel with texting and social media and the like.”

            Frankie slowly turned his empty tea cup on the table, staring down at the dregs at the bottom of the cup. “I tried. As soon as he left, he changed his phone number. He closed his Facebook account.” Frankie paused and sighed, “Florida is a big state—I didn’t even know where in Florida he moved. I kept my same phone number and Facebook account. He never contacted me.”

            Daphne leaned back in her chair with a frown, “That doesn’t sound right at all. Something is missing from the story.”

            Frankie looked up from the cup and met her eyes. “I know, but I don’t know what it is. For a while, I searched online for him all the time. I gave up after about a year or so. Near the end of the year of my junior year of high school, I went to a party that one of the kids from my dance class had. Before middle school began, our school system had redistricted the area and some of the kids I had gone to elementary school with ended up going to a different middle school and a different high school. At this party, I saw a small group of kids that I hadn’t seen since before middle school. They immediately asked about Zach and reminisced about our Abbott and Costello routine.” Frankie paused and got lost in thought for a few moments before he spoke again. “I talked to them for a bit, 10-15 minutes or so, and then I excused myself and went to the bathroom. I opened up my Facebook app on my phone and searched for Zach. I found him right away. His account was on private, so I sent him a friend request.”

            “He didn’t accept it,” Daphne stated flatly.

            Frankie shook his head ‘no’. “I waited almost two weeks before I admitted to myself that he wasn’t going to accept the request, and then I sent him a message on Messenger. I didn’t get an answer so I sent him another message about a month after that. Still no answer. I had to face the fact that he didn’t…” He stopped and cleared his throat, “He didn’t want to have anything to do with me.”

            “Hmm,” Daphne nodded. “And I saw your reaction to seeing him and his reaction to seeing you a bit ago.”

            Frankie shook his head, “He couldn’t be more indifferent to me if he tried.”

            Daphne got up and went back into the kitchen. Frankie heard her shut a cabinet door, none too gently. She came back and tossed an opened bag of Hershey’s Kisses on the table and sat back down in her seat. She reached into the bag and took a few out and pushed the bag towards Frankie. She unwrapped one and popped it into her mouth. She twisted the wrapper into a ball and tossed it onto the tray at the end of the table that was still loaded with their dinner dishes. “I have very strong gut instincts and a well-honed ‘bullshit-o-meter’. I have to tell you, my gut is screaming and my ‘bullshit-o-meter’ is way in the red. This story is full of loose threads! Oh, I don’t mean your part!” she said when Frankie leaned forward and seemed to be ready to object. “It’s him. His reactions, or rather—his lack of reactions. Let me ask you something—when you saw the kids at the party, the ones you hadn’t seen in years, you said that you chatted for 10-15 minutes. Correct?”

            “Yes. I mean, I didn’t time it, but that would be my guess,” Frankie answered with a frown of confusion on his face.

            “Had you been close to them?”

            “Oh no, not really. We had been in the same classes and had the same recesses, but they were basically just background characters in my life.”

            She reached for another candy. “And, as you said, when you and Zach performed that routine, you were surprised at his acting skills, right?”

            “Yes. He was perfect in the role.” Frankie said, still bemused.

            “You said, ‘He couldn’t be more indifferent to me if he tried’. That’s the answer! It all makes sense now!” She said with her eyes flashing in excitement.

            “I’m sorry, you lost me. What is the answer?”

            She jumped up from her seat and began pacing, “You ran into kids you had known in the past. People you were indifferent to, but you still chatted with them for a few minutes, being polite, catching up—things that we all would do in a situation like that. It’s just common courtesy. But to you, someone Zach was very close to—you get treated with complete indifference. No, to speak the truth, you got treated with extreme indifference. Bear with me on this because the thoughts are coming at me quick and probably not in the right order, but you also said that he is a pretty good actor, just untrained. ‘ **He couldn’t be more indifferent to me if he tried’** , that’s the answer…he _was_ trying. He was acting!”

            Frankie leaned back in his seat feeling heavy with shock at her words, “But why? It makes no sense!”

            Daphne didn’t answer. She continued pacing while staring at the floor. “He knew you were here in the building. He has known for weeks. That gave him time to prepare.” She said quietly, still lost in thought. Suddenly she stopped pacing and looked up at Frankie and laughed. “I just realized…he said he had to leave because he had a late class, didn’t he?”

            Frankie agreed with her, that was what Zach had said.

            She walked over to a cabinet and pulled out another binder. She flipped through the pages for a bit. She would run her finger down a page, nod, and then repeat the process with another page. Finally she looked at Frankie. “He was lying. I don’t know why I didn’t catch that when he said it. He has worked here going on three years now. He is on the tennis team. He schedules all of his classes early in the day so he can have the afternoons and evenings free for his practices and for his job here. I checked his work schedule and he has not had an evening class so far this semester, or any other semesters. He wanted to leave quickly and my guess is that was the only excuse he could think of. He must not have rehearsed that part of it.”

            “I’m still at a loss as to why he would do any of this,” Frankie said, shaking his head slightly and shrugging.

            She reached over and got another piece of chocolate, unwrapped it, and popped it into her mouth.   After a bit she said, “Indifference basically means a person feels nothing. He is pretending to be indifferent which means he actually feels the opposite. What is the opposite of indifference? Very interesting question for us to ponder.” She grinned as she tossed the empty candy paper at the tray.


	4. Chapter 4

            Frankie mind was overwhelmed as he left Daphne’s apartment. He hurried back to his own apartment, carrying his basket of clean laundry with him. When he entered, he found Mew and Candace cuddled together on the couch, eating pizza and watching a movie.

            “Come and join us, Frankie!” Candace called to him as he passed by. “The movie just started and we have plenty of pizza!”

            “No thanks; I’ve already eaten,” Frankie called back over his shoulder. “I have a bit of a headache, so I think I am just going to go to bed early. I won’t be back out here, so enjoy your evening.”

            He walked into his room, sat the basket of clothes down, kicked off his shoes, and lay down on the bed. He checked his phone and saw that Kyle had been calling and texting him repeatedly. Frankie sighed and turned it back off. He couldn’t deal with Kyle at that moment. He knew he would have to face him eventually, but now was not the time.

            He plugged his phone into the charger and then resigned himself to acknowledge the memory he had been fighting was determined to be remembered. He grabbed his pack of gum off the bedside table.

            This memory had been threatening to return ever since he was assigned to perform that song; every rehearsal brought it that much closer to the surface. Seeing Zach again gave it super strength. The rest of Frankie’s memories from that time had taken on a soft, fuzzy, dreamlike quality over the years. Not this one though.

            _It was hot and humid inside the gym. The bleachers had been pulled out of the walls and the parents of the graduates sat smashed together like sardines in a can. Most of them were using their paper programs as makeshift fans._

_Frankie thought it was odd that even though all the mats had been removed from the gym and placed in storage for the ceremony, he could still smell them. He could also smell the low undertone of body odor. He privately thought of them as ghost-of-the-gym smells since everyone around him, sitting on the lines of chairs placed on the gym floor, was clean and fresh, and dressed up in their nicest clothes, under the gigantic robes they had to wear._

_Frankie was bored. The last speaker was droning on and on. Frankie shifted in his seat and then turned around to search for the “R” row near the back. He spotted Zach and was surprised to find him sitting still. He seemed to be reading the graduation program. Frankie frowned slightly as he turned back around in his seat. He would have expected Zach to be restless._

_Karen Grant was seated to his right. He noticed that she looked a bit pale. The week before she had thrown up in the cafeteria one day and had ran out of homeroom with her hand to her mouth a few days later. “Are you okay?” he whispered to her. He did honestly care about her well-being, but more importantly, he really didn’t relish the idea of her puking on him._

_She gave him a slight nod. “It’s just so hot in here!”_

_Frankie nodded. “It will be over soon. As soon as this windbag wraps it up, we can get our ‘diplomas’ and then we will be free!”_

_No sooner did he say that when he heard the applause. He looked at the stage and saw the speaker returning to his seat and their principal moving up to the podium. The first row of students rose to their feet and the line began moving towards the stage. “See? Just a few more minutes!” he said cheerfully._

_She nodded and gave him a weak smile._

_Soon it was their time to line up. Karen was standing directly behind Frankie and it made him feel uncomfortable. He hoped if she decided it was time to throw up, she would have the courtesy to turn in the opposite direction. He looked back in her direction and saw that her color had returned to normal and she gave him a real smile._

_“Better now?” he asked._

_“Yes, thanks a lot for reassuring me awhile ago. It helped.”_

_The audience and the students had been admonished not to cheer for their friends and family members but to hold their applause for the end. That didn’t stop a lot of the kids from cheering for their friends. When it was Frankie’s turn to go up on stage, he really expected Zach to make some kind of noise. Frankie was surprised by his silence. From the stage he looked at Zach, who was still waiting for his row to stand. Zach gave him a small smile, but not his usual cheesy, ear-to-ear grin. Frankie felt worried. He knew that something wasn’t right with Zach._

_Frankie returned to his seat. Eventually it was Zach’s turn on the stage. Frankie wasn’t the type to break the rules by screaming for him, he did intend to give Zach a cheery smile and a thumbs-up. Zach didn’t look at Frankie. He accepted his ‘diploma’ and then hurried off the stage to rejoin his line._

_Soon the guests on the bleachers stood and applauded as the 8 th Grade graduates filed out of the gym in reverse alphabetical order. In the hallway there were three tables sat up with faculty members there to collect their graduation robes and check off their names. Frankie hurried over to the first table, labeled A-H, and pulled off his robe. He inwardly laughed at how seriously the faculty was behaving. As if someone would actually want to steal an old robe. The students were allowed to keep their cardboard mortarboard caps, but Frankie would have been just as glad to turn it over to them too. He knew his mom would want to keep it as a souvenir though, so he picked it up from the floor where he had laid it with the graduation program, and turned in his robe._

_He felt immensely cooler after removing it. He untied his bowtie and unbuttoned the top two buttons on his shirt as he scanned the crowd in the hallway, looking for Zach. He saw Mark Stevens at the Q-Z table turning in his robe and he hurried over to him._

_“Have you seen Zach?”_

_Mark turned and also scanned the crowd. “I saw him near the exit earlier,” he said, pointing to the west facing doors. “Maybe he went outside to get some air. It’s pretty hot in here.”_

_Frankie thanked him and started off at a trot, zigzagging around individuals and groups of kids. He hit the bar on the door and stepped out. The courtyard was empty. The entrance was a bit countersunk and both sides of the building stretched out beyond it. Frankie walked out of the shaded entry way into the sunlit area to search for him._

_Frankie spotted him immediately. He was leaning against the building, looking toward the parking lot at the cars of the attendees for the graduation._

_“Hey!” Frankie called and started to jog towards him. “What’s wrong? Are you feeling sick? You should have stayed in the shade!”_

_“No,” Zach said quietly, as he turned his head to look at Frankie, “I’m not sick.”_

_“That’s good! I had to sit next to Karen Grant during the ceremony and then when we lined up she was behind me. I was scared she was going to yak all over me! I hope she didn’t contaminate me. I don’t want what she has. She’s been sick for a couple of weeks!”_

_Zach gave Frankie a small smile. “I wouldn’t worry about it. You can’t catch what she has, at least according to the rumors I have heard.”_

_“Rumors?”_

_“Yeah, she has been dating a high school boy named Scott McMasters. The rumor is that they are pregnant. If I were a betting man, I would bet on them having a boy.”_

_“But…she is too young! She is only in the 8 th grade!” Frankie objected._

_“Technically, she is a freshman now. We all are.” Zach corrected. He turned slightly and lightly ran his hand down the brown brick wall. “None of us are coming back here.”_

_Zach’s parents’ car drove past them and parked a few feet down the drive. The light from the setting sun hit the rear window and sent a flash of bright light into Frankie’s eye. He blinked and turned his head to see that Zach had turned and was looking at their car. “I have to leave soon,” he said in a strained voice._

Frankie sat up and turned the bedside table lamp on. He rubbed the back of his neck. Earlier he had told Candace and Mew that he had a headache and it had been a lie, but now it felt like his head was in a vice. He got up and went to his mini-refrigerator. He pulled out a bottle of water and then retrieved some Advil from a shelf. He took a couple of the pain relievers and washed them down with his water.

            He began to put away his clean clothes. The rumor that Zach had told him about Karen had turned out to be correct. Karen and Scott’s parents signed for them to get married shortly before the baby was born. Frankie was shocked at the time because he had never heard of teenagers that young getting married. Aside from ‘Romeo and Juliet’, of course—but that was set in a different time and was fiction.

            During the winter break from school the year before, while Frankie was home visiting his family, he ran into Karen and Scott while doing some last minute shopping. They seemed to be very happy together. Scott had finished school and gotten a degree at a community college while Karen was still in high school. He now owned and operated a home heating and plumbing business. Karen was enrolled in college and studying to be a counselor for at-risk teens. They had two sons; the oldest was already in Kindergarten.

            Frankie remembered back in 9th grade, after she delivered the baby and he had found out she had a boy, Frankie’s first thought was that Zach would have won the bet if there had been any takers.

            Frankie sighed and rubbed his neck. He looked back over to his bed. He knew he was still avoiding remembering that day by trying to misdirect his thoughts and by doing busy work. He also knew the memory was going to come to him whether he wanted it to or not.

            He walked back over to the bed and placed his water bottle on the bedside table. He turned off the lamp and lay back down on the bed.

            _“You are acting so weird,” Frankie said with a frown. “It’s like you are going to miss this dump! Believe me—in a few months, when we get to the high school, you won’t even remember this place!”_

_“I’ll remember,” Zach said softly, still looking at his parents’ car. “They won’t want to wait on me for long.”_

_“Then ride home with us! I have a feeling that we will be stopping for ice cream. Mommy promised Ari that if she was good during the ceremony we would. I never heard a peep out of her! I heard your brother though!” Frankie said with a laugh. “He howled out during that endless speech. I wanted to howl myself, but I can’t get away with it because I’m not two months old!” Frankie could hear himself rambling on and he wasn’t sure why. Zach’s whole demeanor was causing Frankie to feel panicky._

_“I would love to eat ice cream with you and your family tonight, but I won’t be able to.” Zach turned to look directly at Frankie. “Frankie…I have something to tell you.”_

_For a split second, Frankie’s instinct was to scream, “NO! Whatever it is, I don’t want to hear it!” Instead, he just nodded._

_“Do you remember when Mom was still pregnant, she put in for maternity leave from her job and they started giving her crap? They didn’t want to honor family leave anymore and wanted her to come back to work basically the moment after he was born.”_

_Frankie nodded again. He did remember Zach’s mom being very upset about it. She had been so upset that Zach’s dad became worried about it jeopardizing her and the baby’s health._

_“Mom contacted a staffing service that handles executives. They found her a job in a company that is family friendly. The pay is great and lots of room for promotions and stuff. Anyway, Mom accepted the job and she starts next week.”_

_“Okay, well…that’s great! I’m happy for her!” Frankie said with forced enthusiasm. “I feel like there is a ‘but’ coming though.   What is it?”_

_Zach looked down at the ground and ran his hand through his hair. “But…the job is in Florida. We should have left earlier in the week but they didn’t want me to miss the graduation. They are waiting for me now and as soon as I get into the car, we will be starting the trip to our new place.”_

_Frankie licked his suddenly dry lips. “How long have you known?”_

_Zach shifted his weight and then shrugged. “Six weeks,” he mumbled._

_Frankie relaxed then. He realized that he must have fallen asleep during the long, drawn-out graduation speeches and he was having a nightmare. Soon, either Steve Gottlieb on his left, or Karen Grant on his right, would give him a poke and he would wake up. Zach couldn’t keep a secret from Frankie for six minutes, so there was no way he could keep one for six whole weeks! This proved that none of it was really happening._

_Zach pulled out a jumbo pack of Juicy Fruit gum from his shirt pocket and slid out a stick. He offered the pack to Frankie who waved it away. Zach replaced the pack of gum back in his pocket and unwrapped the stick he had pulled out. He dropped the silver paper on the ground at his feet and Frankie stared at it. He could see that a corner of the shiny side of the paper caught and reflected a tiny bit of the sunset but the rest of the paper was shaded by the grass. Frankie even noticed that the grass was a bit too long and could use mowing. He was surprised at how detailed this dream was. He looked back up at Zach’s face and found that Zach was avoiding looking at him._

_Eventually Zach gave up the fight and turned his gaze to meet Frankie’s. Frankie could see that Zach had a trace of the powdery sugar from the gum on his bottom lip. His eyes were filled with tears. At the sight of the tears, Frankie felt as if someone had punched him in the gut. Tears made this real and he knew he was not dreaming._

_“Six weeks?” Frankie asked in a breathless whisper, “You’ve known for six weeks and you didn’t tell me? What about all the summer plans we have been making? Why would you do that?”_

_Zach shook his head, “I don’t know. When I was with you, I could pretend it wasn’t happening. All the plans we made, that’s what I want! I want us to buy season passes to Riker’s Lake and for us to ride our bikes there and go swimming every day! I want to go to Blaine’s field and watch the fireworks together on the Fourth of July! But most importantly, I wanted to spend our last bit of time together being the same as we always have been—not counting down the days and saying things like, ‘this will be the last time we do this together’. It was bad enough that I was thinking it!”_

_Frankie’s strength seemed to be leaving him so he leaned his back against the building for support. “It’s always been me and you. I can’t even imagine…”_

_“Don’t!” Zach said, reaching out to grab Frankie’s arm. “It will always be me and you, no matter what! Frankie…”_

            Frankie frantically grabbed for the tissues on his bedside table. He knocked his water bottle over in the process and the water poured out and created a puddle next to his bed. He sobbed into a wad of tissues pressed against his mouth to muffle the sound.   He didn’t think he could bear this part of the memory for another second.

            After a bit, he got control over himself. He resolved that he just wouldn’t think about it anymore. He lay back down on his bed and curled up on his side, hugging his knees to his chest. He watched the leaf-filtered light dance around on his walls and ceiling in the dark room. He forced himself to think about a discussion that had taken place in one of his Science classes earlier in the week. He felt himself begin to relax.

            Outside he could hear the wind becoming stronger. The light and shadows coming in from the window changed from a slow, gentle dance to a frantic one. As Frankie’s eyes began to drift shut, he heard the first, heavy drops of rain hitting the ground outside. He thought that the rain sounded like basketball shoes running through gravel. He frowned. The school called it a ‘rock garden’, but it was really just a couple of truckloads of pea gravel dumped onto a constantly shaded area where nothing grew so it was always muddy. Frankie snapped out of sleep faster than he had slipped into it.

            “The only thing Zach-like about him that day was his disregard for the dress code,” Frankie whispered to himself in the dark.

            _Frankie watched as Zach ran away from him, towards his parents’ car. He could hear the gravel crunching as Zach’s purple basketball shoes struck the gravel in the rock garden. Frankie wanted to scream his name, to call him back, to beg him not to leave—but he knew that was not an option. Zach had to leave. And the only thing that Frankie could do was to watch him go._

_Zach yanked open the car door and jumped into the backseat, slamming the car door behind him. The car began to move through the parking lot. Frankie watched silently as their car left the parking lot and entered the street. At the corner, the car turned left onto Center Street. Within a few yards, Frankie could no longer see it, but he could still hear it. He listened to the sound of the motor on the silent street until the sound faded away as the distance grew too far._

_His legs didn’t seem to want to hold his weight any longer. They bent at the knees and Frankie’s back slid down the brown brick wall of the school where he had been leaning._ (Later his mother discovered that his shirt was full of snags and his back was scraped raw from sliding down the wall. Frankie didn’t feel it when it happened.)

            _His heart felt so heavy that it was almost like it had sank into his stomach. His heart accepted that it was true: Zach was gone; his mind couldn’t grasp it—wouldn’t accept it. His eyes darted around trying to find something, anything, to give them a loophole. Something to make this awful day go away and for Zach to return. A tiny breeze fluttered the shiny gum wrapper lying on the ground near Frankie. Frankie watched it start to lift out of the grass and he stretched out his left hand and grabbed it before it could blow away. At the feel of it, clutched tightly in his fist, his brain finally realized it was true and that the gum wrapper was the last thing he had left of Zach._

Frankie sat up and grabbed his pillow. He fluffed it up, laid it back down in its spot, and flipped over to lie on his stomach. He didn’t look toward his underwear drawer where he kept that silver gum wrapper. He didn’t have to; he knew it was there. It was always the first thing he packed and the first thing he unpacked whenever he moved.

            He saw the first flash of lightening and counted until he heard the roll of thunder. He estimated that the heart of the storm was still about two miles away. He closed his eyes and listened as the rain started coming down in a steady rhythm.

            His mind wanted to drift backwards through time instead of down into sleep. Frankie sighed with resignation.

            He was aware that his memories were not all there. He had blank spaces, but he was grateful for them. The memories he had were difficult enough.

            _He didn’t know how much time had passed but he felt someone sit down beside him and gather him into an embrace. He didn’t have to look to see who it was. He would know the sweetness of her perfume and the gentleness of her embrace anywhere. He leaned his head on his mother’s shoulder and noticed his little sister sitting next to him, staring at him intently._

_She studied his face and her eyes filled with tears. Her bottom lip trembled. “You sad, Frankie?” she asked._

_He tried to smile at her with his tightly clinched lips because he didn’t want her to be upset. She was only four years old and she had been so good throughout that long graduation ceremony, he wanted her to be happy. It didn’t fool her though, because when she saw the faked smile, she began to cry in earnest._

_At the sight of her tears, Frankie turned his face into his mother’s shoulder and began to sob. He had never cried so hard in his entire life. At one point his sobs became so intense that he lurched away from his mother and threw up on the brown brick wall of the school._

_Eventually his mother eased him to his feet and she guided him to their car which had pulled up from the parking lot. His step-father was driving and he could hear his sister crying from her car seat; her sobs matched his own._

Frankie sighed and rolled over on his back. The storm had arrived with a vengeance. The dancing leaves made the light bend and flash. It reminded Frankie of a strobe light. He got up and shut the blinds before returning to bed.

            The darkness of his room reflected the darkness in his mind where memories should be. He couldn’t remember much of that summer. He did remember calling Zach and finding that his phone number was disconnected, and he remembered searching for Zach’s Facebook page and finding that it was gone—like he had told Daphne earlier. One of the few other things he could remember clearly was the night he had gotten up to use the bathroom and he had overheard his mother and step-father discussing him. They were planning a family vacation to help Frankie snap out of his depression. If that didn’t work, his mother said she was afraid that they would have to ‘do something’ about it.

            From the time they arrived at the lake, Frankie sharpened his acting skills. He pretended that he was the same Frankie they had always known. For the most part, they believed it and Frankie knew it was because they needed to believe it. Occasionally he would see a flash of concern in his mother’s eyes, so he would make a joke, or act silly to get Ari to giggle. His mother’s eyes would clear and she would join in with them.

            As for himself, Frankie didn’t start to feel ‘fine’ for a very long time. And as he healed, he acknowledged to himself that he would never be the same Frankie that he had been. He felt as if he had catapulted from being a kid to becoming an adult, without the transition period between. He learned that great pain ages a person far beyond their actual years.


	5. Chapter 5

            The next few days were not great ones for Frankie. He wasn’t sleeping well because his memories were keeping him awake, and when he finally fell asleep at night, the memories came alive in his dreams. The performance on campus was approaching quickly so the performers were getting in extra rehearsals, and Frankie was taking extra vocal coaching on his ‘free time’. The worst thing about this time was Kyle. He was swinging wildly back and forth between trying to get Frankie back or telling Frankie how much he didn’t want him back. Kyle was often accompanied by one of his teammates whose name, Frankie thought, was Carl. Frankie had long suspected that Carl was interested in Kyle. Frankie hoped that very soon Kyle would realize Carl’s feelings and the two of them could go live happily ever after together and stay out of his space.

            It was Friday and Daphne’s audition was scheduled for the next day. Frankie had been spending a few hours every night with her, helping her rehearse. He stopped by Dale’s station on the way home and picked them up a couple of dinner salads. He had called her earlier and suggested that he bring dinner. He knew that her nerves would be working overtime.

            As he pulled into his parking space outside the apartment building, his heart began to race. Every time he was in one of the common areas, he couldn’t help himself from searching for Zach. He knew it was ridiculous, he had lived there for weeks and their paths had never crossed before, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself.

            No sooner had he stepped out of his car, loaded down with his books and the two salads, than there came a sudden downpour. The rain felt icy as it hit Frankie’s head and ran down his face. He ran to the building. He was shifting the items in his arms, trying to free a hand to open the door, when it was thrown open. Frankie hurried inside and looked up through his rain-plastered hair to find that his rescuer was Zach.

            “I saw you coming; I was going out to plant some fall bulbs,” Zach seemed as uncomfortable as Frankie felt.

            “It’s raining,” Frankie said.

            “I can see that,” Zach said and grinned at Frankie’s drenched appearance.

            “Zach…” Frankie started, but Zach shook his head ‘no’.

            “I had hoped to avoid this, but I guess I can’t,” Zach started. “I know that when we were kids we used to hang out together sometimes but I honestly don’t remember much about it. We both have to live here and I guess it is pretty inevitable that we will run into each other occasionally. I just hope that it doesn’t get awkward for either of us.”

            “Oh…uh, yeah. Sure. No awkwardness,” Frankie stammered as his heart sank. He couldn’t fathom how Zach couldn’t remember what they had shared, while Frankie couldn’t seem to forget.

            Frankie moved toward the elevator, “Daphne is expecting me.”

            “Hey, thanks for understanding,” Zach said with a smile. “I just think it will be easier to keep our conversations strictly on a professional level.”

            The elevator doors opened up and Frankie stepped inside. He pushed the button for Daphne’s floor and the doors slowly began to close. “Sure…professional level. I agree, and if my toilet clogs, you will be the first one I call.” The doors closed before Frankie could see if Zach’s expression changed, but he mentally high-fived himself. If Zach wanted to act like a walking asshole, Frankie would too.

            Daphne answered her door with towels in her hands. “I saw the cloudburst and I was afraid you would be caught in it!” She took Frankie’s books and the salads from him and handed him the towels. “Oh dear!” she exclaimed, “It’s much worse than I thought it was going to be. Come along! I will get you one of Donald’s robes to wear and we will pop your clothes into the dryer!”

            Frankie joined Daphne at the table a short time later, dressed in Donald’s robe which was much too large for him. He had to roll up the sleeves a few turns and cinch the belt very tightly. Daphne laughed when she saw him.

            “I don’t think I ever mentioned it, but Donald was a very large man.”

            “I figured that out,” Frankie said with a smile.

            Daphne had placed their salads on the table and poured them each a tall glass of sweet tea. “Mmm,” she said, “It feels like fall outside but this salad smells like spring!”

            Frankie nodded his agreement and picked up his fork.

            Daphne frowned. “Something seems off. Did something happen with Kyle? Is he still bothering you?”

            Frankie shrugged, “Yeah, but I have a feeling that he will stop soon. He was with Carl again today when he stopped me. I think eventually he will notice that Carl is interested in him.” He laid his fork down with a sigh. “I ran into Zach in the foyer.”

            “Oh?” Daphne asked, picking up her glass of tea and leaning back into her chair. “Did the two of you speak?”

            Frankie rolled his eyes. “I guess you could call it that. He told me that it was awkward seeing me because he doesn’t remember much of anything from when we were kids and then he requested that we keep things professional between us.”

            “And what did you say?”

            “I told him that he would be the first one I call if my toilet gets clogged.” Frankie said, picking his fork back up. He began to separate the tomatoes and cucumbers from the rest of the ingredients of the salad; placing them in stacks along the edge of the container. His head shot up when he heard her laughing.

            Daphne held the napkin over her mouth and laughed into it. “He asked for that!” she managed to squeak out before giving into another bout of the giggles.

            Frankie smiled and gave a slight shrug before turning his attention back to separating the vegetables of his salad into categories. “I was a bit pissed; I admit it.”

            Daphne’s giggles stopped abruptly. “You didn’t believe him, did you?”

            Frankie shrugged and gave a slight nod. “I suppose I did.”

            “Well no wonder you are just playing with your salad instead of eating it! He handed you a great big bullshit-and-apple-butter-sandwich and you ate it!” Daphne declared, tossing down her napkin.

            Frankie looked up at her with a shocked look, “What?” and then he laughed. “What do you mean by that?”

            “Nobody, unless they have a brain tumor or a severe mental illness, completely forgets nine years of their life. I’d like to prove a point to you about something. I want you to tell me a story from when you were in…” she paused and thought for a moment, “…let’s say fifth grade. But the story cannot include Zach. Go!”

            “Fifth grade…” Frankie mused. He picked up a bit of cucumber with his fork and popped it into his mouth. After a few moments he looked up at her and smiled. “I have one! There was this kid named Joey—I don’t remember his last name, and he came into our class near the end of the school year. His family had just moved to the area. We tried to be friendly to him but Joey seemed to prefer to be left alone. He was kind of odd, hard to describe what I mean, but everybody knows it when they see it. Anyway, one day, about two weeks or so after being in our class, out of the blue, Joey jumped up out of his seat and ran over to one of the girls—I think her name was Stephanie, maybe—she was one of the people whose district changed and I never saw her again after 6th grade. It happened so fast that nobody saw it coming but he grabbed her hair—it was pretty long—and yanked it…or so we thought at the time. But he hadn’t really yanked it. He had cut a chunk of her hair off near the scalp! He went running around the room yelling, ‘It’s mine now! It’s mine now!’ clutching this chunk of hair in one hand and a huge knife in the other. It took our teacher, the teacher from the room next door, and the principal working together to get him disarmed and to get him out of the room.”

            “Oh my Lord!” Daphne said, clutching her chest. “What happened after that?”

            “Joey never came back to our school. Some believed he was expelled, some believed he was arrested and sent away, but Zach said he heard that Joey had been taken to a place for kids with mental disorders. That was the story that I always believed. The young girl was traumatized, to say the least! The hair that he cut was right in the middle of her head in the back. Luckily, when she wore her hair in a ponytail, you couldn’t tell that any was missing. I imagine she carried the emotional wound with her for a long time though.”

            Daphne nodded, “Yes, I can’t imagine how awful that must have been for her. Your stories seem to indicate that you might have gone to a rough school.”

            Frankie shook his head as he speared a tomato piece. “No, it wasn’t, not really. There are schools where much worse things happen.”

            They ate in silence for a bit until Frankie happened to look up and catch Daphne looking at him with a faint smile on her face. “You don’t realize it, do you?” she asked.

            “Realize what?”

            “‘We’, ‘our’, ‘Zach said’. I asked you to tell me a story that didn’t include Zach and although the story didn’t focus on him, he was still in the story,” Daphne explained. “That’s why I said he fed you a bullshit-and-apple-butter-sandwich. His stories from that time period would have bits of you in them too, I have no doubt.”

            Frankie gave a small smile. “Maybe so. I’m not so sure now. I have been examining my memories a lot lately and I have found some blank spaces, and one discrepancy that is really bothering me.”

            “What discrepancy?”

            “It’s silly, but I have always associated the taste of a certain gum with the day Zach moved away so I have refused to ever chew it again. The taste of it and him leaving are melded together in my mind. The other night I was remembering him leaving and I realized that he offered me a piece of gum and I refused it. I don’t understand why I thought differently all these years.”

            “Oh, well obviously your mind has just rewritten the part where you refused it. I wouldn’t think that is a very important detail though,” she said dismissively.

            “No, I guess it isn’t,” Frankie said, but privately Frankie felt like it _was_ an important detail. He just couldn’t seem to remember why it was.

            “You said you have blank spots in your memory?” She frowned at bit at this.

            “Yes. I haven’t told anybody this, but I don’t remember much of the summer after he left. Only the few things I told you—like trying to call him and trying to find him on Facebook. I remember a family trip to the lake at some point during that summer. I had overheard my mom and step-dad talking about hoping it would help me to go back to being the old Frankie. So during the trip, I faked it for them. I kept it up for a long time after that, but memories of that time are very hazy. The only other thing I remember sharply from that time was riding my bike to Zach’s old house the day before school started.”

            Daphne reached across the table and took hold of Frankie’s hand. “Oh Honey! That’s normal! Grief and depression do that to you. I had long periods of time after Donald died that I look back on now and have no memory of. But to go to Zach’s house—that took a lot of guts and it must have been horrible for you.”

            Frankie nodded and glanced down at the table. He bit his lip. “Our whole life we talked about how we couldn’t wait to go to high school. I couldn’t imagine going there without him so I went to his house. And it was bad and I immediately wished I hadn’t gone. The new people had painted the house from white to mustard yellow. Zach’s mother’s red roses still grew on a trellis next to the house, but they clashed against the yellow. The combination of the colors reminded me of the splatter of a mix of ketchup and mustard makes if it drips off a hot dog. Zach’s basketball goal that had been attached to the garage was gone and his bike wasn’t parked behind the bushes. The driveway was blacktopped and Zach’s dad always took really good care of it. After the new people moved in, there were puddles of oil on it. There was a tree in the side yard that had a limb that was near Zach’s bedroom window. He used to climb out his window and get on the limb and climb down the tree late at night and sneak over to my house. The new people had cut down that tree—I mean, who does that? It was a great tree! I was disgusted and heartsick. I rode away from there and I have never gone back.”

            Daphne sighed and nodded as she leaned back in her seat. She picked up her fork and toyed with a lettuce leaf in her salad bowl. “I understand. So many people believe a house is just four walls and a roof.” She looked around the room for a moment and then shook her head. “It’s so much more than that. It is a place where hopes, dreams, and memories are stored.”

            Frankie looked up at her and they locked eyes for a moment. They each nodded and then looked back to their salads. After a bit, Frankie said, “When you asked me for a memory of 5th grade, the first memory that came to mind was our school field trip to the zoo that year. But that story is pure Zach.” He laughed and shook his head. “I’m not sure if what you said was true…about me being in Zach’s memories and stories, but he is all over mine.”

            Daphne smiled. “So…tell me the story! You can’t lead into it and then just stop. What happened at the zoo?”

            Frankie grinned, “We had just had a small introduction to anthropology right before our trip. Of course most of us knew a bit about Darwin’s Theory of Evolution from Science Fiction movies, but since we just finished the section about it in class, it was fresh in our minds. When our class got to the primate area, Zach began going up to the animals and introducing himself as their ‘cousin Zach’. He made up this whole situation that he was there for a family reunion and he had brought potato salad. I remember he tried his bit on an orangutan who charged against his cage trying to get at Zach.” Frankie stopped and laughed, “Without missing a beat, and I mean—he didn’t even flinch, Zach said, ‘I take it you’re not a fan of potato salad.’ He had the entire class just about pissing themselves with laughter. Even our teacher, Mr. Steele, was laughing, and I don’t remember him ever laughing before. His last name suited him.” Frankie paused, lost in thought for a bit. “Later that day, we were allowed to go browsing through the souvenir shops. I found a little plastic gorilla figurine. It was wearing a white tee shirt. I bought it and borrowed an ink pen from the cashier. I wrote ‘Cousin Zach’ on the front of the gorilla’s tee shirt and gave it to Zach as a present. He loved it. At least, I think he did. He kept it on a shelf above his bed up until…well…he kept it there for as long as I knew him after that.”

            Daphne was smiling at Frankie when he finished. “So what did he buy you that day?”

            “Oh, well…we didn’t do that regularly. I just saw the gorilla and I had to buy it for him,” Frankie said, and finished the last bite of his salad.

            “Frankie, I haven’t known you long, but I can tell by your eyes he bought you something that day too. What was it?”

            “I don’t remember,” Frankie said. He looked away from her as he began to blush. He bit his lip to keep from grinning, and then he shrugged, “A pooping pig.”

            Daphne let out a shout of laughter, “A what?!!!”

            “A pooping pig. It had the little ball of brown goo in it and when you squeezed the pig’s sides, it pooped. He gave it to me because a short time before the trip, I had had some weird stomach virus. I missed a couple days of school and was trapped in the house for the weekend. I couldn’t stop shitting. Zach thought it was hilarious that I was trapped sitting on the toilet for four days. He had also borrowed the cashier’s pen and he wrote on the box, ‘You’ll never have to ‘sit’ alone again!’”

            “And you still have it,” Daphne declared, while reaching out to run her finger along the bill of the Donald Duck salt shaker.

            “No, of course not!” Frankie answered with a faint laugh but he couldn’t meet her eyes. “Okay, yeah, I still have it. It doesn’t poop anymore though. The brown goo dried up inside it a long time ago. Now he is a constipated pig.”

            Daphne laughed, “I love these stories of you boys!”

            “Well, that is the last one for tonight! Now we need to focus on your audition tomorrow,” Frankie stated firmly.

            “Oh, there is no need. I’ve realized how foolish this all was and I’ve decided I don’t want to do it now,” Daphne gave a little shrug while looking down at her now-empty salad container.

            “That’s good! Since you don’t want the part anymore, you won’t be nervous tomorrow for the audition!”

            “But—I…” Daphne started to protest.

            “It’s called ‘stage fright’. The only way to get rid of it is to stare it square in the eye and let it know it can’t control you. Come on! Let’s go raid your wardrobe!” Frankie hopped up from the table and strode towards Daphne’s bedroom and nearly stumbled over the hem of the robe he forgot he was wearing.

            Daphne caught his arm and kept him from falling. “Why are we raiding my wardrobe?”

            “You have been rehearsing non-stop. You know every word and gesture. Now it is time to create the character,” Frankie said as he scooped up the excess material of Donald’s robe. “This is the fun part!”

            “But the character has already been created!” Daphne protested as she hurried to keep up with him.

            “No, the play is like photograph, just an event in a lifetime. You need to explore her and create her back story. This should be a snap for you since you are a writer.” They had reached Daphne’s bedroom and Frankie dropped down on her bed. “Do you have purses, handbags? That is a good place to start.” Daphne showed Frankie were she kept them and he was pleased to see that she had a good assortment. “Now pick the one that Cloris would carry—not Daphne, Cloris,” he instructed.

            She stared at them for a moment before her hand reached tentatively for a tote bag the color of screaming cheery cherry. She examined it for a moment and then brought it to Frankie to see.

            He felt the rich leather and noticed that it still had its sales tags attached. “This is a quality bag and a very beautiful, bold color! Why have you never carried it?”

            Daphne shrugged uncomfortably. “I bought it a few years before Donald died. I loved it in the store, but once I got it home, I felt like it wasn’t ‘me’. I got it on sale so I couldn’t take it back for a refund. I hid it in my closet; I never even showed it to Donald. I knew he would think it was too loud of a color.”

            “But Cloris…” Frankie prompted.

            Daphne straightened her spine and gave a toss of her head. “Cloris loves to be loud. In her colors, her style, and her speech. She doesn’t give a damn about what anybody thinks!”

            Frankie grinned at her fiery attitude. “Good for you, Miss Cloris! And what kind of outfit would Miss Cloris choose to wear?”

            Frankie watched as Daphne rummaged through her closet and her dressers. He could hear her mumbling to herself as she created the Cloris character in her mind and searched to recreate what she imagined. Finally she was satisfied with her selections and brought them over to show Frankie.

            He noted the large geometric pattern in black and teal on the blouse, black stretch pants, and a nude shoe with a rounded toe and small chunky heel. “Okay…I have to admit that the shoes are throwing me off a bit,” he said.

            Daphne nodded. “And the black stretch pants too, I bet. I think Cloris is the type of person that dresses from the waist up because that is what she sees in her mirror so that is all that concerns her. She chooses these pants because they are comfortable and the nude shoe because she doesn’t want to attract attention to her feet. She feels as if they are too big; although they really aren’t.”

            Frankie shrugged and then nodded. “I love how you are getting in touch with her. Have you thought about hair, makeup, accessories?”

            Daphne laughed, “Actually, I have!”

            “Good!” Frankie said with a smile, “I heard the dryer stop so I am going to get dressed in something that fits better,” he flapped one of the arms of the robe that had come unfolded and hung down a few inches past his hand. “I want you to transform yourself into Cloris, and when you are ready, come and show me. I am going to sit in your living room and get some homework done while I wait.”

            Frankie changed from Donald’s oversized robe back into his own clothes and went into the living room. He lost himself in his studies and didn’t realize the passage of time. He heard a slight sound, like a polite clearing of the throat, and looked up to find a completely transformed Daphne standing there. He closed his textbook with a chuckle and stood up to meet her. “So…this is Cloris!” He walked around Daphne and noted the changes. “Your glasses?”

            Daphne nodded, reaching up to touch the empty space where her glasses usually rested. “I never could get used to wearing contact lenses so I gave up. I figured Cloris would have kept at it until she grew accustomed to them.”

            “You have done an amazing job! Have you examined it in detail?”

            “Yes, of course! I stared in the mirror the entire time I did my hair and make-up!” Suddenly she stopped and clasped a hand over her mouth and giggled. “Oh! I examined it like Cloris would…from the waist up in a mirror!”

            Frankie laughed, “Then you really _are_ her! But you should look at yourself in a full-length mirror to make sure you have achieved the look you envisioned.”

            They went together to the bathroom and Daphne spent some time checking out the details. Finally she smiled and her eyes met Frankie’s in the mirror. “This is Cloris. I can’t see anything that needs changed.”

            Frankie pulled her into a side hug. “Perfect! This is how you are to dress tomorrow for your audition. You will blow them away!”

            “Really? I thought I would wear something a bit nicer…and more understated.” She looked again at herself in the mirror. “Oh. I think I understand your point now. If I go in there as myself, they will have to envision me as Cloris; dressed this way I am already her!”

            “Exactly! Now I have two pieces of advice for you: Get some rest tonight, and tomorrow, break a leg!”

            “Please answer this honestly—do you think I am ready? Like, really ready?”

            Frankie reached out and squeezed her shoulder reassuringly. “I think you are really, really ready. If I didn’t think so, I would be honest and tell you so. You make a wonderful Cloris and I am certain, as much as I can be, that you will get the part. Would you like for me to drive you tomorrow?”

            “Oh heavens no!” Daphne declared, her eyes huge at the idea. “If I bomb, I’d rather do it without witnesses!”

            Frankie laughed, “You are _not_ going to bomb—I promise! If you don’t get the part, it will be because they decide to go a different way, not because you aren’t great.”

            Frankie had to spend a bit more time reassuring her but finally felt she was comfortable enough for him to leave. As he let himself into his apartment, he could hear Mew’s voice coming from the kitchen. Frankie popped his head in, expecting Mew’s company to be Candace, but instead found that Mew was talking to Zach. Frankie felt the smile he had ready for Candace slide from his face.

            Mew and Zach were sitting across from each other at the table with their textbooks opened in front of them.

            “Oh good! Frankie what do you know about equity-linked derivative securities?” Mew asked as a greeting.

            “Just enough to be glad I am not a Business major, sorry,” Frankie tried to make his voice sound normal. He had felt a rush of anger seeing Zach there; remembering their last conversation.

            “Um,” Mew said, quickly looking back and forth between Frankie and Zach, “Have you met…”

            “Yes!” Frankie and Zach hastily answered in unison.

            “Okay then,” Mew said, looking at his textbook with his eyebrows raised.

            “I will let you get back to your whatever-it-was-securities. I have a great deal of Biology homework to do,” Frankie said as he turned and left the room. He went to his bedroom and put in his ear buds to block out the low murmur of Mew’s and Zach’s voices that reached his room. He kicked off his shoes and sat down on his bed and opened his textbook.

            He had to struggle for a bit to get his mind back on his homework. Eventually he was successful and lost himself in the work. He was near the end of the assignment when he was aware of seeing something moving from the corner of his eye. He looked toward the door and saw Zach standing there, waving to get his attention.


	6. Chapter 6

            Frankie removed his ear buds and looked at Zach in confusion.

            “Sorry…he…uh…I did knock first. You must not have heard…your door was open. We ordered pizza and he went down to the entrance to wait for the delivery. He told me to tell you. He wants you to come and eat with us…Johanson, that is…” Zach stammered.

            Frankie nodded. He had assumed the two of them were friends, but by Zach only using his last name seemed more likely they only knew each other from class. “Mew,” Frankie corrected.

            Zach frowned as he searched Frankie’s face. “Did you just…” was as far as he got before he doubled over laughing. After a few moments he managed to get in enough air to croak out, “Did you just **_meow_** at me?”

            Frankie snickered, “No! It’s his…” and he joined Zach in laughter. “His name!” he finally managed to say.

            “No it’s not! No one would name their child that!” Zach laughingly said.

            “Nickname!” Frankie, still giggling, wiped away the tears from his eyes caused by his laughter.

            Zach shook his head and said with a grin, “I think you are joking. I am going to ask him when he gets back.” He walked over to Frankie’s dresser and picked up the family picture from the top and studied it. The picture had been taken before the semester had started a few months before. It was of his grandparents, his mother, his sister, and him. His step-father had been removed permanently from family photos years ago during the divorce. Zach carefully sat it back down where it had been and then looked around the room. “I’ve heard about this room. It doesn’t look different from any other bedroom. You could never tell that it is a ‘magical’ room!”

            Frankie scoffed. “It’s not a ‘magical’ room. Mew calls it a ‘blessed/cursed room’. He says it is blessed for whoever rents it but cursed for him because he has to keep finding new roommates. I’m surprised you’ve heard about it.”

            Zach laughed. “Everybody has heard about it. In fact, there is a rumor that the reason you rented the room was to get Kyle to propose to you.”

            Frankie frowned and shook his head. “Do you know Kyle?”

            “I don’t know him, exactly, but of course I know who he is. He is the star quarterback for the football team! I think if you asked anyone on campus, they would know who he is. So, was that the reason you rented the room?” Zach grinned to show that he was teasing.

            “No. I took the room because I am a triple major and I needed a place to live that was quiet so I could study. I liked Mew and the room, and I will admit I appreciated the grounds. You do a good job keeping everything looking nice. And as for me and Kyle, we broke up recently.”

            “I’m sorry! I didn’t know. I wouldn’t have said anything…” Zach hurriedly apologized but Frankie waved it away.

            “It’s fine. It was mutual and had been a long time coming.” Frankie said.

            “But…I’ve seen the two of you together almost every day.”

            Frankie was surprised at hearing this and he wondered how Zach had seen him but he had not seen Zach. “Kyle has shown up where I was a few times to discuss our breakup.”

            Zach grinned. “Then it wasn’t mutual. You dumped him.”

            “No…I am the one who ultimately ended it but it was mutual. Kyle just hasn’t realized it yet.”

            “Yeah, you dumped him,” Zach said with a grin as he sat down cross-legged on the floor. “I have to wonder why. Pretty much everyone wants to be with Kyle—men, women, and I think I’ve even seen a couple of bushes turn and watch him as he walks by. You had him and didn’t want him. Interesting. My guess is that there is something wrong with him. Something hidden,” Zach paused and looked at Frankie with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. “No,” he dismissed the thought. “You would have dumped him ages ago if it was that. Hmmm…Oh! I know! He is a sleep eater, right?”

            Frankie gave a shout of laughter as he leaned over a bit to see Zach better, “A what???”

            Zach grinned, “A sleep eater! I knew one once and it almost lead his wife to divorce him! They are our neighbors in Florida—the guy’s name is Bob. Bob had some stress at work that was keeping him from sleeping so his doctor gave him a prescription of sleeping pills to help. His wife insisted that Bob was up in the night eating while he was asleep. She was terrified that he would eat something that wasn’t meant to be eaten, so she couldn’t sleep because she was worried about him. Bob didn’t believe her. He had gained some weight but he thought it was a side effect of the medicine. They argued all the time and she was on the verge of leaving him over it when Bob realized she was telling the truth.”

            “How did he find out?”

            Zach laughed, “One night he was awakened from a sound sleep because he heard their daughter screaming. When he woke up he found himself sitting at the table with her Easter basket in front of him. He was eating all her Easter candy and she caught him in the act!”

            Frankie clamped his hand over his mouth to hold back his laughter. Finally he managed to ask, “What happened then?”

            Zach laughed, “Bob took his daughter candy shopping and let her pick out anything she wanted and on their way home he stopped and picked up some flowers for his wife. He told his doctor about the sleep eating and was put on a different medication. As far as I know, they have lived happily ever after that. I don’t go to Florida often so I am a bit out of the loop. And you didn’t answer my question…is Kyle a sleep eater?”

            Frankie laughed, “No, Kyle is not a sleep eater. There is nothing ‘wrong’ with him; he is a great guy, we just weren’t right for each other. We both knew it; I am just the one who said it out loud.”

            “I didn’t know you and Kyle had broken up!”

            Both Frankie and Zach startled and turned to find Mew standing in the doorway.

            “Yeah, we broke up a short time ago,” Frankie answered.

            “Are you okay?” Mew asked with concern on his face.

            “Yeah, it was for the best,” Frankie answered.

            Zach laughed, “Frankie dumped him; he’s fine.”

            Mew smiled, “Good! I am glad you aren’t heartbroken. Of course I have a feeling that it is going to bite me in the butt in the long run.”

            “What?” Frankie asked, “Why?”

            “When I rented you the ‘blessed’ room, I thought you had already found your soul mate in Kyle. Now I have to worry about you finding your true love and leaving the apartment!” Mew teased.

            Frankie laughed, “Nope! I rented the room to have a quiet place to study, not to find a man. I have no time to be looking! The only way I will find my true love in the next two years is if he walks into this apartment!”

            Mew smiled broadly, “It’s a good thing that I was the one who met the pizza delivery man then! Speaking of which, let’s go eat!”

            Zach hopped up to follow Mew’s retreating back. He stopped and looked back at Frankie who was still seated on his bed. “Come on, Frankie!”

            “No thanks. I have already eaten,” Frankie said, reaching for the textbook he had put aside earlier.

            “A salad?! That’s nothing! One little piece of pizza isn’t going to kill ya!”

            Frankie thought about it. He was still full from the salad, and his costume for the performance was already made so he didn’t want to gain any weight before the show, and eating greasy pizza this late in the evening was sure to stir up his acid reflux. “Okay,” he said with resignation as he got up from the bed and followed Zach out of the room.

            When he entered the kitchen, Frankie saw that Mew had removed the textbooks from the table and had placed the pizza box in the center. He had set the table with three paper plates. Frankie smiled when he saw the Mew had the good sense to use the ‘company’ paper plates—the thicker, waxed ones, with a flower pattern. Usually they used the flimsy, paper-thin, white ones that could be bought in stacks of like four million plates for a dollar. Mew had forgotten to provide them with napkins, however, so Frankie ripped three paper towels from the roll and gave them each one.

            They all reached into the box and grabbed a slice. Zach shot Frankie a warning look and then turned to Mew. “I was thinking earlier, you and I are in several classes together, but we have never formally met. I don’t know what else to call you except for Johanson.”

            Mew wiped his hand on his paper towel and extended it to Zach, “I’m sorry! I never thought to introduce myself! Bartholomew Percival Johanson, III. My friends call me ‘Mew’.”

            Frankie snickered when Zach shot him a look of defeat and then shook Mew’s hand. “Frankie told me that your nickname was ‘Mew’, but I didn’t believe him,” he admitted.

            Mew laughed, “I picked it a few years ago when my plans to change my name legally fell through. In high school, my friends called me ‘B3’ but I wasn’t fond of that. My mother is a Bingo fanatic and it sounds like something they would call out during a game.”

            “I didn’t know that you had tried to change your name,” Frankie said as he reached for a second slice of pizza.

            Mew nodded as he chewed. “It really isn’t difficult or expense to do. I knew my family would never give me the money, so I saved up for it myself. When my mother found out, she had a raging fit, but I didn’t care and I didn’t let it stop me.”

            “Then what did stop you?” Zach asked, picking off an unidentifiable ball of something black and burnt near the crust of the slice of pizza he held in his hand and dropping it onto his plate.

            “The original,” Mew said, and then laughed at their identical confused expressions. “My grandfather is the original. He goes by the name Bartholomew, and my father is Bart. It makes me feel like cringing to tell you that my family calls me ‘Barty’. Anyway, ‘the original’ told me that if I changed my name, I would lose my inheritance. Call me mercenary and I will agree with you, but I wasn’t about to give that up. So I decided to become ‘Mew’.”

            “Couldn’t you have used your middle name?” Zach asked as he wiped his hands and then wadded up his paper towel and tossed in onto his paper plate.

            “Did you miss the part where I said my middle name is ‘Percival’?” Mew asked and then roared with laughter. “I hate the name ‘Percy’ even worse than I hate ‘Barty’!”

            “If it were me, I think I would tell people to call me ‘Trey’ since it means ‘three’,” Frankie suggested as he got up from the table and tossed his used plate and paper towel into the trashcan. Zach handed his plate to Frankie, who took it and put it in the trashcan along with his. As soon as he put it in the trash, he realized that this unspoken communication they had shared was something that spoke of familiarity, not strangers who had just met.

            Mew had frozen in his place and he slowly turned his head to look at Frankie. “Where in the hell were you when I was searching for a nickname?!! I like the name Trey!”

            Frankie laughed, “I just met you at the beginning of this semester! You can’t blame me for not suggesting it two years ago! When you leave college and start your professional life, you can change your nickname to Trey then.”

            “I think I will run that by Candace. Sometimes right in middle of things it sounds like I am in bed with a cat!” he laughed and then mimicked in falsetto, “Mew! Mew!”

            Zach looked at Frankie and his face flushed, “It does sound like ‘meow’.”

            Frankie laughed, “This has been fun, but I have to go back to studying. I have a mountain of homework to do.”

            Mew picked up the pizza box that still have a few slices remaining and put it on the counter near the sink. “Yeah, I think we have to get back to ours now too. I just wish it was more interesting.”

            “Wait a second, Frankie!” Zach called as Frankie started to leave the kitchen. “I need to ask the two of you something. Have you been having any plumbing problems here?”

            Frankie and Mew looked at Zach in confusion and both assured him that everything was working perfectly. “Okay,” Zach said, “Glad to hear it. But remember, if your toilet clogs or anything, I am the first one you should call.”

            Mew nodded and reached for their textbooks that he had placed in the unused chair at the table. Zach looked at Frankie and gave him a smirk. Frankie rolled his eyes, shook his head with a grin, and then left the room.


	7. Chapter 7

            Early the next morning, Frankie ambled around the parking lot of the apartment, trying to appear casual. He ate a few antacids from a roll he was carrying in his pocket. The pizza he had eaten the night before had really kicked up his acid reflux. It made sleeping difficult; he assured himself that his sleeplessness had nothing to do with his mind ceaselessly going through his childhood memories of him and Zach together. His mood matched the weather, gray and gloomy.

            It seemed as if he had been loitering around for hours when Daphne finally appeared. The first thing he noticed was her screaming cherry red tote bag. He smiled to see that she had followed his suggestion to dress in character.

            “What are you doing out here?” she asked breathlessly as she reached him.

            “I could lie and tell you that I was getting ready to go somewhere, but the truth is I was waiting out here to see you before you left for your audition. How are you doing?”

            “I am scared out of my freaking mind!” she admitted, reaching up to clutch at her necklace.

            “How is Cloris?” he asked with a grin. “She isn’t afraid of anything, is she?”

            Daphne let out a breath and relaxed her shoulders. “No, _she’s_ not.”

            “A part of you _is_ Cloris. You need to tap into that part of yourself and you will breeze through this. Would you like for me to drive you there?” He offered.

            “No. No, I think this is something I should do on my own.”

            Frankie nodded. “Break a leg!”

            She gave him a slight smile and started walking towards her car. She paused once she reached the driver’s side door. “Frankie?” she called. “Would you mind coming with me?”

            Frankie laughed. “Let’s take my car so you can relax and let me drive.”

            On the drive into town, Frankie helped Daphne rehearse her lines a bit and he gave her a pep talk. By the time they reached the theater, Daphne was much calmer. “Thank you for everything you have done to help me,” she said before she stepped out of the car. “I don’t think I could have even attempted this without you.”

            Frankie patted her arm. “I think you could have. The Cloris part of you wouldn’t have allowed you to give up on yourself.” She grinned and blew him a kiss as she stepped out of the car. Frankie watched her square her shoulders as she walked toward the theater. After she entered, Frankie reached into the backseat for one of his textbooks. He had stocked his car with his textbooks and some bottled water that morning. He had felt she would want him to come with her.

            He lost himself in his studies. Every so often he would be distracted as he saw someone enter or exit the door that Daphne had entered earlier; each time that he noticed it wasn’t Daphne, he would return to his work. Finally he saw her cherry red tote bag and he tossed his book aside. He hopped out of the car and jogged to her, noticing her smiling face as he neared.

            “How was it?” he asked when he got close enough for her to hear.

            “Wonderfully horrible!” she said, laughing. “They had me to stay after my audition and brought me back in after everyone else had left to do it all over again. I’m not sure what that means—it felt like a good thing. It was a good thing, right?”

            Frankie had his arm around her and was escorting her to the car as she told him this. “I think that was a great thing, not just a good thing! If they weren’t impressed by you that would have never happened! When will you find out the results?”

            “They announced that they would post the cast sheet on the door after lunch this afternoon.”

            “This afternoon! That’s so fast! It usually takes much longer to find out!” Frankie said in amazement.

            They reached the car and Daphne waited until they were settled inside before answering. “They have been holding auditions for the other roles for a while. I imagine they have made up their minds about those already. Today was just for the Cloris role.”

            “Let’s go to lunch and maybe they will have it posted by the time we are finished,” Frankie suggested.

            “Are you sure? If you are busy, we can go back home and I can pick up my car and come back on my own.”

            “Of course not! I want to be with you when you read the cast list!” Frankie objected.

            They went to a tiny corner café that Daphne was partial to. She hurried over to claim the last table by the windows. “This used to be my favorite spot in the entire town. I loved to sit here and ‘people watch’.” She pulled out a notebook and pen from her tote bag and sat them at the table. “I am still a ball of nervous energy. This is a game I used to play when I came here; it helped me with my writing. Would you like to play it with me?”

            Frankie had been studying the menu and he closed it and laid it down on the table to give Daphne his full attention. “Sure. What is the game?”

            “It doesn’t really have a name. The object is to catch a character!” At Frankie’s confused look, Daphne laughed and continued, “Look…do you see that woman across the street near the bank? The one wearing the yellow coat?”

            “Yes…I see her,” Frankie said. The server came to their table to take their order at that moment. As he was placing his order, he saw Daphne pull her phone out of a pocket in her tote bag, and take a few pictures of what Frankie assumed was the woman in the yellow coat. Daphne gave the server her lunch order and after the server left the table, Daphne passed her phone over to Frankie. He saw it was indeed a picture of the woman in the yellow coat.

            “What do you suppose is in that little bag she is carrying?” Daphne asked.

            Frankie frowned, “Her lunch?”

            Daphne laughed. “Of course it is her lunch! In real life it is a bagged lunch that she probably brings from home to save money. I’m not speaking about real life here, I am building fiction. What could be in it?”

            Frankie stared at it for a moment. “Not money, even though she probably works in the bank. That little bag wouldn’t carry much and I think if she were going to risk her freedom for a heist, it would be a big one.”

            “Okay, that makes sense,” Daphne agreed.

            “Her shoes seem important to me,” Frankie said, stretching the picture bigger to take a better look.

            “Her shoes? Why?” Daphne flipped open her notebook and prepared her pen.

            “I know a few people who have worked in banks, mainly on their summer breaks or for an apprenticeship. Banks expect their employees to dress very well, but the pay isn’t much. The shoes she is wearing are designer shoes. Well above her pay grade, in my opinion,” Frankie said.

            “Really? You can tell they are designer shoes just from that picture?”

            Frankie grinned, “It is a talent. I can always spot the differences in a designer item versus a knock-off item. Those shoes are high dollar designer shoes.” He looked out the window at the woman who was still outside the bank. She was pacing nervously and Frankie saw her look at her wristwatch. “She is waiting for someone and the person is late. I notice that she is walking with her stride a bit off. In real life, my guess is that she purchased the shoes second-hand for a bargain and the previous owners’ foot shape is different than hers so she is constantly aware of the difference when she walks. In fiction, I would say that they are new shoes that she hasn’t gotten broken in yet. How would she get the money for brand-new, extremely expensive, designer shoes? Certainly not from her salary,” Frankie said, starting to enjoy the game.

            Daphne was writing hurriedly in her notebook. The server brought their lunches to them. Frankie took a bite of his sandwich and watched her write. “You said you _used_ to play this game, past tense. I am assuming it is something that you and Donald did together.”

            She looked up and him and laughed. “Oh honey, no! Donald didn’t have a smidge of imagination! He was very analytical. But after he died, I lost all desire to write—to do anything, really.” She looked down at the notes she had written, “But, you know what? I feel like maybe I could write something now. Once you pointed out her shoes, my mind has been working in overdrive! I never played this game with anyone else—it is great to have a second set of eyes!” She paused and looked out the window again. She grabbed her phone and began taking pictures. “Look, her ride finally arrived!” Frankie looked out and saw an older, much abused, pickup truck at the curb and the woman with the yellow coat was getting in. Daphne took numerous pictures until they drove out of sight. She smiled at Frankie when she laid her phone down and picked up her pen. “In real life, that is probably her boyfriend. But in my story…well, it probably won’t be that innocent or mundane!” She ate as she wrote. Eventually she looked up and realized her plate was empty. Frankie had carried his backpack in with them and was doing his homework, having long finished his lunch.

            Daphne pushed the button to turn her phone on. “Goodness! It is nearly two! Maybe we should go look and see if the list is posted.”

            Frankie nodded and gathered up his homework and placed it in his backpack. “I lost track of time,” he said.

            “Me too,” Daphne said. “And I am grateful for it! I wasn’t a bit nervous, but the nerves are coming back now!”

            They paid their bill and hurried back out to Frankie’s car. Frankie drove immediately to the theater, only to find that the list had not been posted yet.

            Daphne groaned. “I wish they would hurry up and post it!”

            “Since we are in the area, would you mind if we stop by the campus library? There is a section of a book I need notes from. It is a reference book so I just need to make some quick copies of some pages and then I will be done.”

            Daphne smiled and relaxed against her seat. “That’s fine! I love going to the campus. I often take a small walk around it when I go to post apartment notices on the bulletin board on the quad. It reminds me a bit of the college I went to. I’ve never been to the library though. I am a huge fan of libraries!”

            Frankie was backing out of the parking spot. He stopped and grinned at her. “You’re a writer! I’m not surprised you are a fan of libraries. I bet you like bookstores too, right?”

            Daphne sighed with a smile, “Love ‘em!”

            Traffic was light so they arrived at the campus in a fairly quickly. Frankie was surprised that Daphne seemed to want to take her time and examine everything they passed. She was full of questions and observations. Frankie had assumed she would want him to get done as fast as possible so they could return to the theater.

            When they finally reached the library, he was prepared to hurry over to the Reference section and request the book, but Daphne was engrossed with everything and moved even slower in the library than she had on the walk over. He quietly told her where he would be and left her to her exploring.

            He was almost finished with making his copies by the time she joined him. She sat down at a reading table near him and he looked up from the copier and gave her a smile. He motioned that he was almost finished and she gave him a nod with a smile.

            He turned back to his work and from his peripheral vision he noticed that someone had moved to stand next to him. He turned his head and felt his heart sink at the sight of Kyle. He didn’t relish another scene, especially one in front of Daphne.

            “That’s not your mom. Is she one of your mom’s friends?” Kyle asked, using his head to motion towards Daphne.

            “No, she’s my…” Frankie paused. He had been intending to say ‘landlady’, but that didn’t feel right. “She’s my friend,” Frankie stated. “One of my closest friends, actually.”

            “Odd, but whatever. Look, I wanted to tell you something. I went on a date last night,” he stopped and searched Frankie’s face. He sighed and then looked away. “I felt like I was cheating on you.”

            “You weren’t.”

            “Yeah, I could see that on your face. We really are over, aren’t we?” Kyle asked. But before Frankie could answer, Kyle asked, “Are you seeing anyone?”

            “No.”

            Kyle’s shoulders sagged. “I think I was hoping you were. Then I could blame the other guy, maybe beat him up or something; but if there is no one else, I have to accept that it was my fault.”

            Frankie turned away from the copier to fully face Kyle. “No! It was not your fault and it wasn’t my fault. We’ve always had spaces between us and as time went on, those spaces became more noticeable. No couple has everything in common, but if the differences are complementary the relationship doesn’t suffer. Our differences weren’t complementary and in time, I know they would have destroyed us to the point where we would become hurt, resentful, and bitter. I didn’t want that for either of us.”

            Kyle sighed and looked down at the floor for a moment before raising his head to look into Frankie’s eyes. “I hate this, but I admit that what you are saying is true. I might as well confess something…I missed your last show and I told you I had to go to football practice. That was a lie. I am not a fan of all that singing and dancing stuff.”

            “Thank you for being honest. I already knew that though. Some of the guys from your team came to the show,” Frankie said.

            “You knew? And you never said anything? Why?” Kyle asked with a shocked voice.

            “Kyle…I hate football. I couldn’t very well yell at you for skipping what was important to me when I was guilty of doing the same thing to you. And these are some of the spaces that I mean. They are differences that we can’t fix.”

            Kyle gave a small nod. “I really wanted it to work out with you, but,” he gave a deep sigh, “I agree that we don’t have what it takes to make it for the long haul. I won’t bother you anymore, but I warn you…I am always going to hold you in my highest esteem and there is nothing you can do about it!” he finished with a small smile.

            Kyle turned and walked towards the door that led to the corridor. Frankie watched as Carl appeared outside the door. He had obviously been waiting for Kyle because he fell into step with him and they were still walking together when they passed out of Frankie’s line of sight.

            Frankie finished making his copies and gathered up the papers and put them in his backpack. He slung it up onto his shoulder and then returned the book he had been copying from to the librarian. He walked back to Daphne who seemed engrossed in a magazine. “Are you ready to leave now? I have finished what I needed to do,” he said quietly.

            She nodded, closed the magazine, and laid it back on the table. She grabbed her tote bag that she had hung on the back of her chair and then joined Frankie. They took an exit on the other side of the room from where Kyle had left—theirs took them to the outside. As soon as Frankie opened the door, he was surprised at how fast the weather had changed. All day it had been gray and overcast, but now the sun was out and the sky was clear and was a beautiful cornflower blue. Frankie took a deep breath and exhaled all his stress away.

            “I take it that was Kyle talking to you by the copier machine,” Daphne said.

            “Yes. He has decided to accept the breakup and isn’t going to bother me anymore. He even had a date last night—I suspect it was with Carl,” Frankie said.

            “And you are okay with it?”

            “I am ecstatic about it! I don’t want him back so I am glad he is moving on and going to leave me be,” As Frankie said the words out loud, he felt like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders. “I didn’t like feeling that I caused him pain, but now that he is seeing someone, he will be over all of that soon enough.”

            “So…um, I’m not sure how to say this…but, Kyle is certainly not an ugly man, is he?” Daphne asked and then laughed.

            “No, he is most definitely not ugly,” Frankie laughingly agreed, “And even with all the recent mess, he is a very nice person, too. I just always knew in my heart that he wasn’t _my_ person, you know what I mean?”

            “Actually I do. Roger Bixell. He was my boyfriend when I met Donald. As soon as I saw Donald, I knew what Roger and I had wasn’t what I wanted. I broke up with him before I even received Donald’s books in the mail.” The walkway had reached a fork and Daphne stopped to look down them. “Which way is closest to the parking lot?”

            Frankie pointed to the left. “The right one eventually gets there but passes a lot of the buildings beforehand.”

            “Okay! Let’s go to the right then,” and she started off at a brisk pace.

            “Wait! Aren’t you in a hurry to get to the theater and see if the cast list has been posted?” Frankie asked, hurrying his steps to keep up with her.

            “Not really. If I got it, I got it. If not, then not. But I am enjoying my time here. Back in the library, when I was wandering through the stacks, I heard a young man talking to one of the library aides. He was looking for a recipe for a strawberry/vanilla cake. His girlfriend’s birthday is coming up and he wanted to bake her favorite cake. He told the aide that he doesn’t cook so it has to be a simple recipe. In my mind, I can imagine him doing his best but the cake ending up somehow both raw and burned at the same time, and his girlfriend being so pleased that he tried.”

            They chatted about other snippets of conversations she had heard and she described how she could use them in stories. Frankie told her the names of each of the buildings they passed and what majors were taught in them. They came to a small grassy area where numerous students were sitting on benches chatting, or lying on blankets spread out on the grass, reading or doing homework.

            “I would like to walk around that little area. Do you mind?” She asked, but didn’t wait for his answer as she walked away from him. He hurried along behind her with a grin.

            She was still a few yards ahead of him when she stopped. She pointed to a chain-link fence and a group of people who were entering it. “What’s that? Where are they going?”

            Frankie shrugged. “Not sure. Some kind of athletic thing would be my guess. I don’t come around this area as per usual. Part of the problem I had with Kyle,” Frankie said with a small laugh.

            “Let’s go see!” and she took off towards the fence.

            Frankie shook his head with amusement. He felt as if he was trying to control a 50-something- year-old toddler. She had gotten a good start on him so he began to jog.

            She had just darted through the opening in the fence when the sounds reached Frankie’s ears. First the “POK!” followed almost immediately by the “THWACK!” He stopped short. He wasn’t really into sports but he knew those sounds. “Shit!” he mumbled to himself. It was the tennis courts. He stood there listening to the rapidly repeating sounds. “POK!” when the ball struck the court and then “THWACK” when the racket met the ball. He tried to weigh the odds of Zach not being on the court and with a sinking heart, he felt certain the odds were strong in the favor of him being there. Frankie felt as if he had no choice; he had driven Daphne there and he couldn’t leave her. He took a deep breath and walked slowly towards the fence, chanting “Shit, shit, shit!” under his breath with every step.

            He entered the opening in the fence and his eye immediately went to the court. He wasn’t surprised in the least to see Zach was on the court, in the middle of a match. Frankie turned his attention to the bleachers and located Daphne. She had found a spot near the steps, on a row about midway up the bleachers. No one else was on the surrounding rows. She saw Frankie and grinned as she patted the empty spot next to her.

            Frankie reluctantly climbed the steps and sat down next to her. She was engrossed in the match. Frankie turned his attention there too. Zach’s opponent looked flushed and was perspiring heavily; Zach’s appearance had not been affected by the match so far. Frankie watched as Zach had his opponent running with each turn—sometimes landing the ball just on the other side of the net, other times landing it just inches away from the line. The man had to run for every return and Zach barely had to move from his spot. Frankie deduced immediately that they were mismatched. Zach was by far the more superior player. Frankie did admire the other player’s tenacity. Although it was obvious that he was fighting a losing battle, he did not surrender. Eventually it got too much for him and he faltered. Zach was declared the winner of the match.

            They met at the net and shook hands. Zach’s opponent waved to the crowd that was on the bleachers and then limped toward off the court, headed toward the locker room. The crowd cheered for Zach, some were even chanting his name. Frankie realized that most of the people present seemed to have come there for the sole purpose of watching Zach, which meant he must be a very important player. Frankie mentally kicked himself for his lack of knowledge of anything other than the programs and departments at the college he was involved in.

            Zach started at the opposite end of the bleachers and walked along the court, smiling, waving, and occasionally shaking a hand or two as he made his way down the line.

            Frankie groaned. “Let’s go before he sees us!” he hissed.

            Daphne turned to Frankie and gave him a tiny smile. “It’s too late. If we stand up, he is going to notice immediately. He may be so involved with the crowd on the lower bleachers that he might not even look up here.”

            Within moments Zach had reached their area. He greeted the fans on the bottom tier and just as he was turning to leave, he raised his eyes to their level. Frankie felt his stomach clench up. It was silly to feel so uncomfortable, after all they had hung out the night before and ate pizza together, but he was worried that Zach would think Frankie was stalking him. Zach face registered a fleeting second of shock, but then his face softened and his smile turned into a huge grin. He blushed and looked down for a second, looked back up at them and then turned and hurried off toward the locker room. Right before he entered, he turned back to look at them, still wearing the huge grin as he ducked inside.

            Frankie felt a flutter in his stomach at the sight of that smile. For a moment, he had seen the face of the boy he had known under the face of the man Zach had become. He kept his eye on the locker room door to see if Zach would reappear. Two other players exited and walked onto the court. Daphne looked at her watch, “Oh dear! I think we had better leave now. Such a shame! I was enjoying this so much!”

            They walked down the steps of the bleachers and back out through the opening in the fence. Soon they came back to the walkway and continued on the way they had been before Daphne had been interested in exploring the small grassy area.

            Frankie was lost in an argument with himself in his head. At first he had thought that expression on Zach’s face was the boy inside the man, but as he replayed it in his mind, he became convinced that it was Zach’s real face he saw. He realized Zach had almost perfected the ability to hide his feelings behind a mask. He had not had time to prepare himself earlier and that was why they had seen his real face.

            They had been driving for a while and were approaching the city when Frankie realized neither of them had spoken since they left the tennis court. He looked over at Daphne who was staring out the passenger side window. “Are you getting nervous?” he asked.

            She turned and gave him a small smile. “A bit, but I know that I gave it my best shot. If I don’t get it, I am not going to beat myself up about it. And I won’t let it discourage me either. They will be casting for Summer Theater in a few months. I will try out for one of those parts.”

            “That’s the spirit!” Frankie said enthusiastically.

            “I wasn’t really thinking about that though. What I was thinking about the way Zach smiled when he saw us. Did you notice? He seemed genuinely happy to see us there, which is surprising considering he views me as his boss and you…well… he told you yesterday that he doesn’t really even remember you and wishes to keep your conversations strictly professional. It is puzzling.” Daphne said. She bit back a grin and turned to look back out the window.

            “Uh...we talked a bit last night,” Frankie began and Daphne turned quickly in her seat until she was practically facing him.

            “What?!! Where? Why didn’t you tell me?!”

            “It really wasn’t much to tell,” Frankie said, surprised at her reaction. “And you were stressing out about your audition so I didn’t want to bother you with it.”

            “Bother me! I am dying to hear! What happened?”

            Frankie sighed and gave a small shrug, “He was in my apartment when I got home. He and Mew are in some of the same classes so they were studying together. Later Mew went down to the foyer to wait for a pizza delivery and Zach came to my room to get me. He told me a crazy story about one of his neighbors in Florida who was a sleep eater…”

            “Sleeping pills?”

            “Yeah! You’ve heard of that?” Frankie laughed, “It was a funny story though. And then we ate pizza and I went back to studying. It really wasn’t anything much to speak of.”

            “So…I want to get this scene in my head. He was in your _room_? Not the hallway, but inside your actual room?”

            “Yeah. I had ear buds in listening to music while I was studying so I didn’t hear him knock. The door wasn’t shut all the way, so he came in.”

            “Okay. And then he randomly told you a story about a sleep eater?” Daphne asked with a laugh. “Something is missing. What led up to the story?”

            “He was talking about the reputation of my room…” Frankie said before Daphne interrupted.

            “The ‘blessed’ room where every roommate that Mew has ever had have found their perfect match and moved out? That reputation, or one that I’ve not heard about?” she gave him a wink.

            “The one that Mew made up!” Frankie answered with a laugh. “Zach said that several people thought I had rented the room to get Kyle to propose to me. I told Zach that we had broken up, and Zach was trying to figure out why—which was why he offered the sleep eating theory.”

            “Now it all makes sense,” she said and then turned back in her seat and looked out of her window again.

            Frankie looked at her a few times and then determined she had dropped the subject so he searched his mind to come up with another topic of conversation. “Hey! When you were ‘collecting conversations’ did you collect mine and Kyle’s?”

            “No, you were too far away and speaking quietly. I will admit that I tried my hardest to hear though.”

            Frankie laughed, “At least you are honest!”

            “Yes, I am honestly very nosy.”

            “And since you couldn’t hear us, you found a magazine to entertain yourself while you waited,” Frankie offered.

            “Oh! No, that wasn’t a magazine. It was a copy of a map of the campus.”

            Frankie nodded, and a few seconds later he frowned as a thought occurred to him. “Wait a second! Did you deliberately lead us to the tennis courts?”

            She flashed him a huge smile, “Of course I did! I knew Zach was at tennis practice and I was hoping to see him play. We got lucky and arrived just in time! If we had arrived ten minutes later…”

            “Daphne! He is going to think that since he deigned to speak to me last night that I am going to be stalking him now!”

            She shrugged, “He didn’t look upset to me. He looked quite pleased about it.”

            “Daphne! Please…promise me that you won’t do that again!” Frankie implored.

            She sighed, “Okay, I promise I won’t take you around him again without your permission.”

            Frankie relaxed his fingers that he had clenched tightly on the steering wheel. Zach still might think Frankie was stalking him, but Frankie would just make sure to avoid areas where he was likely to be. It would work; after all, he hadn’t met Zach for weeks after he moved in. “Thank you,” he said quietly.

            “For what, leading you there today or promising not to do it again?” Daphne quipped.

            Frankie looked at her from the corner of his eye and then smirked. “Both.”

            She laughed, “Yeah, that’s what I thought!”

            They had stopped at a red light and Frankie could see the theater from his position. It was up ahead and to the left. He could see a paper on the door. “The list is up,” he announced.

            “Oh Lord!” Daphne placed her hand on her heart. “All of a sudden, I am scared to death!”

            The light changed to green and they proceeded toward the theater entrance. Frankie signaled for the turn but there was a long line of traffic and no one seemed to be in the mood to stop and let them turn. Frankie could feel Daphne’s tension building. He couldn’t think of anything to say to calm her so they sat in silence until the line of traffic passed and they could finally make their turn. Frankie drove into the empty parking lot and parked in the spot nearest the door.

            “Come with me?” Daphne asked in a strained voice.

            They got out of the car and met in the front of it. Frankie started to walk to the door but Daphne hadn’t moved from her spot. Frankie looked back and saw that her face was very pale and she had a hand at her neck, twisting her necklace. “I can’t…could you read the list and tell me?” she asked.

            Frankie nodded and went to the door. He traced the list with his finger until he found the character name of Cloris. He ran his finger across and read the name. “Ah well,” he said with a sigh and a shrug, “The role of Cloris will be played by the extremely talented….Daphne Roberts. Do we know her?”

            “I got it?” she squeaked.

            Frankie laughed, “You got it!”

            She hurried over and read it for herself. She looked at him with a huge smile, “Oh my God! I got it!”


	8. Chapter 8

            The next few weeks passed rapidly. Frankie didn’t have to worry about avoiding Zach because, as it had been before, their paths never crossed. Frankie could see the evidence of Zach’s presence however. Autumn had appeared quickly, almost overnight it seemed. The trees had shed their leaves but none of them littered the ground of the apartment building. The new bulb bed had been planted and covered thickly with a blanket of mulch. The parking lot, corridor floors, and the elevator were kept spotlessly clean, even with the steady flow of new visitors to the building.

            Members of the cast and crew involved in the play with Daphne had made her apartment a gathering place. Frankie was taken in by them immediately because, although not a part of their play, he was a theater person. Occasionally Daphne and Frankie still managed to share a meal alone and she confided in him that she was writing a new novel, it was about a drug smuggling ring. She worked on it at nights after everyone left. Daphne was basing it on the woman in the yellow coat they had seen outside the bank the day she found out she had gotten the part in the play. She admitted to being out of practice of writing and figured the novel would be one that never saw the light of day, but she was glad to be back writing.

            Daphne’s appearance had changed since Frankie first met her. She had gotten used to the contacts so her glasses had never reappeared and the screaming cherry tote bag was her constant companion. She had been shopping a few times and had updated her wardrobe. And she seemed to always have a smile on her face and to be excited for each new day.

            Frankie was extraordinarily busy with his classes as midterms approached and by his vocal lessons. The concert was to be held on the last day of midterms. The students were to have a four-day weekend after it. Frankie’s anxiety levels were high. They always were near midterms, but this performance was weighing heavy on him. Every time he sang the song in practice, his mind was overwhelmed by memories of him and Zach when they were kids together. He found himself buying multiple packs of Juicy Fruit and keeping one near him at all times just to get through the stress.

            Although there were numerous trips available for the four-day break, Frankie was planning on staying put. He wanted to get a jump on his studies during the long weekend so by the time Thanksgiving break came he could go home and just relax. He was counting the days until he could go home again. He longed to see his family and he needed a place to go to escape the pressure.

            When midterm week arrived, Frankie found himself overwhelmed before each test and amused after each one. They were never as difficult as he feared. He finished his last midterm of the semester on the afternoon of the concert. He left the campus and hurried back to the apartment, grabbing one of Grace’s salads from Dale’s station on the way. He ate hurriedly, showered and changed, grabbed his costume from his closet and rushed to the performance center on campus. Quite a few of the students were already there. Frankie joined them as they all met in a rehearsal hall and the director led them through the scales and a few simple songs to get their vocal cords warmed up.

            He got dressed in his costume and headed to the stage wing to peek out at the crowd. It was a full house. Usually Frankie was happy and excited while he was preparing to go on stage. This solo was different. He didn’t want to sing it, but since he had to, he wished he could just do it and get it over with. Unfortunately, he wasn’t scheduled to sing until near the end of the program.

            Eddie, a student who was serving as the backstage manager, stalked over to him. “Your mother is in the corridor outside the dressing rooms. She insists that she has to speak to you. You know no one is allowed back there!”

            “Yes, and she knows it too! Something must be wrong!” Frankie took off at a sprint. He ran down the short corridor that led from the stage and turned left onto the main corridor. He slid to a stop when he saw Daphne outside the dressing room door.

            “Daphne? Eddie said my mother…” Frankie said looking around quickly. He was shocked when he spotted Zach leaning against the wall by the door and felt the blood drain from his face.

            “This has certainly been a crazy day!” Daphne said as she handed Frankie his phone. “You left this at home. No one could get in touch with you. Mew gave it to me to bring.”

            “What is it? Why are you here? Don’t you have rehearsal tonight?” Frankie asked in a confused rush of questions, desperately trying not to look in Zach’s direction. The main question he wanted to ask was why Zach was there, but of course he couldn’t ask that since Zach was right there!

            Daphne gave a small laugh, “I had planned to surprise you so I requested tonight off from rehearsal a couple of weeks ago. It was lucky that I did because unfortunately, your mother and sister can’t be here.”

            “What? Why? Is something wrong?”

            “Your sister came down with a touch of a tummy bug. Your mother says it is nothing serious and is sure it will pass quickly. She tried to call you but kept getting your voice mail, so she called Mew. He was going to come with me this evening but he got called into work at the last minute. He gave me your phone to bring to you and told me about your sister. And then when I got to my car to come here, the silly thing wouldn’t start! So I had to ask Zach to bring me. I got your mother’s number from Mew and I called her and told her that I would have her on video chat during your performance so it will be almost like she is really here. She was so grateful that she arranged for us to have her and your sister’s seats. Quite an upgrade! My seat was in the nosebleed section but now, Zach and I will be in the second row in the center section! Like I said, it has been a crazy day!” She finished with a small laugh and a slight toss of her head.

            Frankie knew that gesture very well. He had helped her to perfect it. He knew she was acting. He didn’t doubt that his sister was ill, so he knew his mother was not a part of this plan or scheme…whatever it was that Daphne was doing. He was certain that whatever it was, it was all Daphne’s idea.

            His eyes darted to Zach and saw that he was reading a flyer on the bulletin board across the hall. Frankie looked back at Daphne, peering deeply into her eyes, trying to read what she was thinking. “You said your car wouldn’t start. Do you have any idea what could be wrong with it?”

            Daphne laughed, “Oh Honey! I don’t know anything about mechanical things! I know there is gas in it. Otherwise…” and she shrugged with a grin. “I called a garage and someone is coming out to look at it. I imagine it will be fixed very quickly.”

            “I have a feeling it will be,” Frankie replied dryly.

            Daphne smirked at Frankie and then turned to Zach, “The stage manager has been by here three times. I think we have overstayed our welcome.”

            Zach nodded and walked over to them. He gave Frankie a ghost of a smile, “Break a leg.”

            Daphne had already begun to hurry down the corridor and she turned back to Frankie just as Zach reached her side. “That’s right! Break a leg! Better yet…break both of them!” she called over her shoulder.

            As soon as they disappeared from sight the reality of the situation hit him. He had to sing a solo about missing someone from his childhood and he had to sing it in front of the person he thought of when he sang it!

            He felt his back break out into a cold sweat and his legs grew shaky and weak. His mouth became instantly dry. His heart began to pound rapidly in his chest and he felt as if he was going to be sick. He ran for the men’s room.

            When he pushed open the bathroom door, he could smell that others were feeling stage fright like he was experiencing. There were two stalls and both were occupied. A set of legs in the first stall showed that the person was sitting and in the other stall the legs showed that the person was standing, facing the toilet. He could hear the sounds they were making and they didn’t make him feel any better. He hurriedly turned the faucet on in the sink and ran cold water over his wrists. He looked up into the mirror and met his eyes in his reflection. He mentally gave himself a lecture— _“You are not going to give into stage fright! You’ve got this. You can do it! Besides, Zach is not stupid—he will know you didn’t pick the song. And even if he doesn’t know that, he knows that you didn’t know he would be here.”_ He took a few deep breaths (immediately regretting it when he again noticed the odors) and felt himself beginning to relax. He let the water run on his wrists a bit longer and then turned off the faucet. He grabbed a couple of paper towels and dried off his wrists. He looked in the mirror at himself again and saw that his color was back to normal. He threw the paper towels away and left the bathroom.

            He walked back to the dressing room and pulled his phone out of his pocket where he had placed it after Daphne had given it to him. He turned it on and saw all the missed calls and texts from his mother from earlier in the day. He read the last text and saw that his sister was feeling better; she had managed to eat some crackers and keep them down. He smiled in relief and turned off his phone and put it with the clothes he had worn there.

            He reached in his pocket and pulled out the pack of Juicy Fruit and tried to put it with his clothes and phone but his hand didn’t seem to want to let it go. He peeked around and saw that no one was in his area, so he brought the pack up to his nose and inhaled deeply. He closed his eyes and suddenly he felt like he was fourteen again. And fourteen-year-old Frankie would have never worried about what Zach would think of a song. He would have known that Zach had his back, no matter what. The thought brought a lump to his throat and the sting of tears to his eyes, but also it brought a measure of comfort to him. He blinked the tears away and slid the gum back into his pocket. He grabbed a bottle of water from the cart by the door and unscrewed the cap. As he drank it he could feel the tightness in his throat loosening. A certainty that everything was going to be okay washed over him.

            And that feeling was correct; everything was okay. He walked out on the stage, sang his song, and a bit over 3 ½ minutes later, he walked back off the stage to the sound of applause. He had a moment of discomfort when he saw Daphne waving from the audience and he had to force himself not to look at Zach who was seated next to her. He saw a tiny version of his mother on the screen of the phone that Daphne had in her hand. He couldn’t make out her features clearly, but enough that he gathered comfort and strength from her presence.

            After leaving the stage, he joined the other performers in the lounge and waited for the finale when they would all return to the stage to take their final bows. Everyone was in high spirits. Frankie sat quietly by himself, which was very unusual for him. He was often one of the most hyper ones after a show. A few of his friends hurried over to him to tell him how great he had sang and he returned the compliments. When they mentioned how quiet he was, he claimed he had a headache. After a time they wandered away to rejoin the more lively performers.

            After what seemed like an eternity, they were finally called in for the curtain call. This time Frankie managed to avoid looking at the second row. He focused his gaze at the midpoint section of the audience and made his bow and then left the stage.

            It was a crazy, chaotic mess in the dressing rooms as was usual after a show. Frankie changed back into his street clothes very quickly. He handed the wardrobe person his costume and hurried away. He threw on his jacket and put his phone inside his pocket before stepping outside.

            They were waiting for him on the steps. He had assumed they would leave right after the performance, but they hadn’t. Daphne ran up to him as he stepped out of the door and grabbed him into a fierce hug. “I had no idea you could sing so well! Why didn’t you ever tell me? I was amazed!”

            Frankie laughed as he returned her hug and quipped, “You never asked me!” He peeked over her shoulder and saw that Zach was looking at the ground.

            She playfully smacked his back, “That is no excuse! Next time tell me when you are really great at something so I can be prepared! A nice lady came over to us and asked about your mother and when I told her she couldn’t be here, she told us about an after party. She said you and your family always attend.”

            “Yes, we usually do. Who was the nice lady? I would like to tell Mommy who asked about her,” Frankie asked.

            “I don’t know her name,” Daphne said as she released Frankie and looked around for her.

            “It was Tillerson Montgomery’s mother,” Zach supplied in a bland voice, but his face slightly contorted into an involuntary sneer at the name.

            Frankie nodded and then gave Daphne’s arm a pat, “Well, I am sure you are as anxious to leave as I am.”

            “Oh no! I want to go to the after party!” Daphne said firmly. “I want tonight to be just as if you were here with your mother.”

            “Oh. Okay. I didn’t think you would want to go, but sure,” Frankie said. In truth, he wasn’t really interested going to the after party. He had been looking forward to a long soak in a hot bath, but he could tell by her face that she was excited for the party and he didn’t want to disappoint her.

            “Then you are fine with seeing Daphne home, right? I had plans with some friends tonight that I called off when Daphne told me she needed me to bring her here. I told them I would drop by after I was done,” Zach said, reaching into his pocket to retrieve his keys.

            “Yes, of course he can see me home!” Daphne said before Frankie could answer. “It was lovely of you to bring me tonight and to keep me company.”

            “Hey Frankie!” They all turned to see Micah Osmond jogging over. When he neared them he said, “I was turning in my costume and this was lying on the table with a piece of paper with your name under it. You left it in the pocket of your costume. I said I would bring it to you,” Micah handed him the pack of Juicy Fruit.

            “Oh, uh…thanks,” Frankie said.

            “No problem!” Micah said and he turned and darted off in the other direction.

            Frankie felt as if his hand was moving in slow motion as he put the gum into his pants pocket. He looked up to find Zach watching him. Frankie blushed as if the item found had been a used sex toy of his that someone had discovered.

            “Well, uh…enjoy your party,” Zach said, and turned from them and moved swiftly away.

            “I didn’t see! What did that boy bring you that you left behind?” Daphne asked excitedly.

            Frankie, who was still searching through the crowd to see if he could locate Zach, reached into his pocket and pulled out the pack and showed her.

            “Gum?! Why would gum cause the two of you to act like that?” Daphne asked in confusion.

            “Act like what? I don’t have a clue what you are talking about,” Frankie denied quietly, looking around to make sure no one was close enough to hear.

            Daphne laughed, “He ran off like a cat someone had thrown water on and you are acting like you are trying to hide a dead body in your pocket! What is it about that gum that made the two of you act like that?”

            “We should get to the party before all the good tables are taken,” Frankie said.

            “I am not moving a step until you tell me.”

            Frankie sighed. “It’s nothing—I mean, well…it’s just kid stuff.”

            “Um-hmm. Continue,” she urged.

            Frankie shifted his weight from side-to-side. He hitched another sigh and said, “When we first became friends he had a stick of gum in his pocket and he tore it in two and shared it with me. We returned to class and got caught chewing it and had to sit in the time-out chairs. At home, I wasn’t allowed to have gum, so every week when I got my allowance, I would give Zach some of it and he would buy the gum and sneak to me,” Frankie paused, lost in thought. Finally he shrugged, “It just became our thing, you know? Long after I was officially allowed to have it, he would still pick it up for me and sneak it into my house.” He looked toward the doors, “Everyone has gone back inside.”

            “We have time. What else are you remembering?” she asked in a quiet voice.

            He smiled at her, “You know me pretty well. I was thinking about the summer before 8th grade. We mowed yards all over town to earn extra money. He bought some horrible purple high-top basketball shoes that he adored with his, I bought a few things for school but I saved the rest. For Zach’s birthday I went to the store where we always bought our gum and asked Mr. Greene, the owner, to sell me a case of it. It wasn’t something he had ever been asked before; he only sold it by the pack, but he said since I was such a great customer he would do it. When he found out it was for Zach’s birthday, he even wrapped it for me. Zach loved it. He said it was the best present he ever got.”

            “He remembers. I know you don’t believe it, but he does. I saw his face when that guy handed it to you.”

            Frankie shrugged. “I guess we’ll never know.”

            “Somehow I think we will one day. Now, where is this party?” Daphne linked arms with him and he led her inside.

            The after party was held in a banquet room in the basement of the performance center. Culinary students from the college earned extra credit by preparing buffets for parties. Frankie and Daphne grabbed plates and started for the line. Frankie saw Mrs. Callahan motioning to him that she had saved places at her table for them. Frankie smiled and nodded to show her that he understood. His family usually sat with the Callahans at college functions because his mother found Mrs. Callahan to be the most enjoyable of all the parents. The Callahan twins shared similar interests to Frankie so he was comfortable with them.

            Mrs. Callahan and Daphne formed an instant friendship and spent the meal talking together. After Frankie finished eating, he allowed his eye to roam around the room. A few tables over he spotted Tillerson Montgomery sitting with his family. Mrs. Montgomery was overdressed, as per usual. His mother told him that Mrs. Montgomery always introduced herself to people as Mrs. Edwin Montgomery. Never by her own first name—and no one knew what it was. Her only topic of conversation seemed to be about her husband who was a partner in the corporate law office, Tillerson, Jackson, and Montgomery, and was far too busy to attend school functions. They had named their oldest son after the law office before Mr. Montgomery had become a partner. Frankie always felt like it was their way of sucking up to the main partners to get Mr. Montgomery the partnership. He thought back to how Zach had involuntarily sneered at the name Tillerson Montgomery and he agreed with the sneer. They were a sneer-worthy family.

            Back in elementary school, Frankie thought it was probably around third or fourth grade, they had studied collective nouns. Frankie loved learning and using phrases like a “murder of crows” or a “maul of bears”. Zach loved them because he said that most of them had to have been created by a smartass, and he was a huge fan of smartass humor. The two of them used to make up their own collective nouns for things and shared them as inside jokes. Frankie decided that the Montgomery family rated a collective noun. They should be called “a sneer of Montgomerys”. It was perfect for them.

            He was idly wondering if Zach still enjoyed making up collective nouns for things when his phone sounded the text alert. He looked at it and saw it was from his mother. He quickly read it and saw that his sister was sleeping comfortably and that his mother wanted him to call her when he got home from the after party so they could talk about his night.

            He checked and saw that Daphne was still in a conversation with Mrs. Callahan and decided she wouldn’t miss him so he decided not to wait to call his mother. He stood up and pulled on his jacket. Daphne looked up and he showed her his phone and pointed to the door. She nodded and went back to her conversation with Mrs. Callahan.

            When Frankie got outside, he pulled his jacket closer to his body as the chill of the night air hit him. He walked over to the concrete edging and sat down as he pushed the call button on his phone.

            He and his mother spoke on the phone for quite a while. She raved about his performance and also about how much she liked Daphne and couldn’t wait to meet her in person. She assured him that his sister was feeling much better in the evening before she had fallen asleep. Frankie gave her all the messages that the parents at the after party had asked him to tell her. They discussed their Thanksgiving plans and Frankie told her he couldn’t wait to come home for the break. As they were saying goodnight and preparing to hang up, she told him to be sure and thank Daphne for sending the video to Ari. She had fallen asleep before his solo and she would have been heartbroken to have missed it. Frankie assured her that he would.

            The temperature seemed to have dropped while he was on the phone so he hurried back inside. Long before he reached the banquet room he could hear the music. He opened the door and found that someone had rolled in a piano and a couple of the guests had brought their guitars. The tables had been pushed back and people were dancing in the clear spaces. He looked for Daphne and found her on the dance floor with somebody’s dad. He wasn’t sure whose dad it was, but Daphne looked like she was having the time of her life. Frankie smiled and made his way back to their table and took a seat with a clear view of the dance floor.

            After a while Daphne persuaded Frankie to dance a couple of dances with her, but then he returned to his seat at the table, leaving her to rejoin her new friends. She danced to every song, sometimes with groups of people and sometimes with a partner. Frankie was tired. It had been a long, very stressful day. Before coming to the after party he had been longing for a soak in the tub but now all he wanted to do was to go home, skip the bath, and just crawl into bed.

            Finally, one of the school administrators who had attended the after party signaled it was time to end. There was a bit of good-natured grumbling, but everyone complied.

            As Frankie and Daphne were walking to Frankie’s car, Daphne chattered non-stop. She told him that she had had more fun that night than she had in years. He told her that she had a standing invitation to come to every event of his. She grabbed his arm and hugged it.

            “I am sorry that your sister was sick and they couldn’t make it tonight. I know it was bad for all of you, but I did enjoy being your substitute mother so much!”

            Frankie patted her hand and then opened the car door for her. “I wish I would have known they were going to stop the party a few minutes before they did. I would have come out and heated up the car so you wouldn’t have to sit in the cold.”

            He walked around the car and got in on the driver’s seat. She grinned at him, “That’s okay, I’m not that old! I can deal with the cold. In fact, I rather like it.”

            He started the car and then turned to look at her. “It’s lucky that it started. I never think about it until someone else has car trouble. So, what do you suppose is wrong with your car? It was running fine yesterday.”

            She shrugged, “Like I said earlier, I don’t know anything about mechanical things. I am sure it was just a loose wire or something like that.”

            Frankie nodded slowly, “A loose wire,” he mused. “I wonder if maybe someone loosened it.”

            She grinned, “I wouldn’t be at all surprised.”

            Frankie sighed, “Daphne, you promised you wouldn’t.”

            Daphne laughed. “No, I promised that I wouldn’t take you to him, and I kept that promise. I never promised that I wouldn’t bring him to you.”

            Frankie leaned forward and rested his head on the steering wheel. “Daphne!” he said in exasperation.

            Daphne gave a small giggle, “Okay, I promise no more interference at all.”

            He turned his head slightly and looked at her.

            She crossed her heart with her right hand and then raised it, “I swear! Besides, I already accomplished what I set out to do.”

            “Which was…?” Frankie asked.

            “For you to watch him playing sports and for him to watch you perform; just like you used to do for each other when you were kids.”

            Frankie groaned, “I wish I never told you that!”

            “Too late now. Oh my Lord! Is that really the time?” she said, pointing to the digital display on car’s dash.

            Frankie sat up and pulled out his phone and checked the time. “Yes, 1:35,” he confirmed.

            “I had no idea! The time just flew by this evening! Oh you poor thing! You only went to the party for my sake and I bet you are exhausted! Do you want me to drive home?”

            “No, I’m fine. And I really am glad you had a good time. There is something I want to ask you though. Something Mommy said on the phone to me earlier. She wanted me to thank you for the video of my performance. I have to ask, although I really, really don’t want to...”

            “Zach filmed it with his phone and sent it to me to send to her,” she supplied the answer before he could get out the question.

            Frankie nodded, “Yeah, that’s what I was afraid of.” He put the car into reverse and backed out of his parking spot without saying anything more.

            During the drive home, Daphne told him more about her experiences at the party. She seemed satisfied to only hear an ‘um-hmm’ every now and again from him.

            When they pulled into Frankie’s parking spot outside the apartment building, they could see two men headed up the walkway to the entrance door. Frankie could tell that one of the men was Zach, so he scanned the parking lot and saw that Zach’s car was not there and instantly deduced that he had been too drunk to drive and so the other man had driven him home and was helping him into the building.

            Frankie and Daphne got out of the car just as Zach was about to enter the building. He turned in their direction and paused for a moment. Then he raised his hand to wave and called out very loudly, “Hey Abbott!” The man that was helping him shushed him and hurriedly pushed him inside.

            Frankie was frozen in place. “Did he just…”

            “…give an absolutely perfect imitation of Lou Costello? Yes. Yes he did.” Daphne said and she walked over and took hold of Frankie’s arm and gave him a slight pull to get him moving. “I _told_ you he didn’t forget! I knew he couldn’t have!” she said excitedly. But then she made a ‘tsk’ sound with her teeth. “I feel sorry for the person that has to sit next to him on the bus in the morning though.”

            “Bus?” Frankie asked, still feeling bewildered.

            “Yes, he is going away for the midterm break with the tennis team. They have to leave really early. I hope they give Zach a window seat.”

            Frankie nodded and let himself be pulled along up to the building. As they neared the entrance, the man who had been with Zach walked out. He had on a nametag of the campus’ designated driver program. He nodded to them and then hurried on his way.

            As the elevator doors closed behind them and the elevator began to ascend, Daphne said, “There is one more thing…you should know that taking a video of your performance was Zach’s idea, not mine. He heard your mother telling me that your sister had fallen asleep and was going to miss your solo.”

            Frankie blinked a few times, trying to focus on what she was saying. “He did it without you telling him to?” he asked with great suspicion.

            “Yes. He said that you were her hero. Now how do you suppose he knew that?”

            The elevator doors opened and Frankie walked out and then turned to look back at her. The doors were closing so that the elevator could continue up to her floor. Daphne grinned and tapped the side of her head with her finger. “He remembers,” she whispered as the doors closed.

 


	9. Chapter 9

            On the night vision screen, Frankie and two of the guys from his theater classes were watching the next group of people approaching their area. The three of them were made up as zombies and were hidden in a secret space in the walls of the haunted house to pop out at the customers as they walked through. The proceeds from the haunted house went to various charities in the area and there was also a canned/packaged food drop-off near the entrance. Frankie had volunteered to work there every night for the duration.

            He and the two guys with him, Bill Eckles and Steve Brian, had worked out the perfect routine. Bill and Steve would go out one of the doors and meet the customers face on, leaving enough space between the two of them so that scared people could run past them. Frankie would come up behind the group to give them the encouragement to run forward, not backwards, through the skinny corridors.

            Their make-up and costuming were perfect for the job. Even in a well-lit room they were frightening, but in the darkness, Frankie thought they were the most terrifying creatures in the haunted house.

            The management had issued a list of rules for the volunteers. Some of the key rules were how to treat the customers—if someone seemed really frightened they were to back away and allow them to pass, they were to stay at least an arm’s length away for their own safety because frightened people often react by hitting, and probably the most important rule of all was to never touch anyone.

            Those rules ran right out of Frankie’s mind when he saw that Zach was in the approaching group, and he was at the back of the line. Frankie had not seen Zach since the night of his performance and after awhile, he began to feel certain that Zach was avoiding him on purpose. Frankie started varying his schedule to see if it would cause an accidental meeting between the two of them, but it never did. This confirmed Frankie’s suspicion. He knew that Zach had not counted on him working in the haunted house. Frankie suddenly felt as if he were fourteen again as the grin spread across his face.

            Bill and Steve went out of their opening to meet the group and when Frankie heard the startled shouts from the group, he slid noiselessly out of his opening so that he was behind them and let out a loud roar. Bill and Steve parted to let the group run away, and Frankie—without taking the time to think about it—reached out and grabbed the back of Zach’s shirt. Zach let out a loud squawk while twisting around to try to free himself from Frankie’s grasp. Frankie was laughing so hard that he let go and had to lean against the wall for support.

            “Frankie?” Zach whispered and he leaned in closer, squinting his eyes in an attempt to focus them in the darkness. “Frankie! That wasn’t funny! I could have hurt you!”

            Frankie was still doubled over laughing with tears rolling down his face, “You…you squawked! Like a…a…cartoon chicken!” he managed to say in between bouts of laughter.

            “Stop laughing, Frankie,” Zach said quietly in a warning voice, but Frankie couldn’t seem to stop.

            Suddenly Zach put hand on the wall on each side of Frankie and leaned in close, and he whispered, “Stop laughing.” Frankie’s laughter ceased immediately when he looked into Zach’s eyes. They were close enough that Frankie could see him clearly, in spite of the darkness. Zach put his mouth near Frankie’s ear and whispered, “1, 2, 3, 4—I declare a prank war. You took the first shot, now it’s my turn.” He pulled his face back a bit and smirked at Frankie. He quickly walked out of the zombie zone to rejoin his group.

            As soon as Zach was out of their area, Bill and Steve hurried back into their hidden compartment behind the wall. Frankie pushed himself away from the wall and walked over to his own opening. He was surprised to find that his knees were weak.

            He stepped into their little spot and instinctively looked at the monitor to see if any other groups were headed their way. The area was still clear.

            “Frankie, what did he whisper to you? Why would you do that? You know we are not supposed to touch anyone,” Bill admonished in a disapproving voice.

            “We…that is… uh…” Frankie began before being cut off by Steve.

            “Man! If he registers a complaint, it is going to affect our extra credit points!”

            “He won’t complain,” Frankie assured him. “We’re…neighbors. No, well, actually we’re old friends…it doesn’t matter. He won’t complain to anyone, I promise. He knows it was just me. If I am wrong, I will take all the blame. I’ll make sure everyone knows you guys had nothing to do with it.”

            Bill pointed to the monitor and announced, “Another group headed this way. Remember: keep your hands to yourself!”

            They popped out and scared that group and then went back to their hiding spot. Bill and Steve were involved in a whispered conversation about some kind of sport—Frankie thought it was baseball—and it gave Frankie a moment to collect his thoughts.

            Of course he knew he was attracted to Zach, he always had been, so it wasn’t a shock to him that he had felt a reaction to Zach. What was a shock was the intensity of attraction that he felt when Zach stepped close to him and their eyes met. Frankie felt as if he had been kicked in the chest. He could scarcely breathe. And when Zach leaned in a whispered in his ear, he had felt chills run down his spine. Thinking about it caused him to feel the same chills and breathlessness all over again.

            For the rest of his shift, he kept replaying that moment over and over again in his mind. He started to imagine other scenarios that started the same way but ended differently, much more intimately than just being informed of a prank war, and decided it was best to try to push everything out of his mind and concentrate on his work.

            After his shift ended, on the drive back home, he remembered a prank that Zach had pulled on him when they were in 7th grade. Frankie couldn’t remember if they had been in a prank war at the time or even if this had been the last prank that Zach had pulled on him, but it was the clearest one in his memories.

_The day of the prank was a Friday and they had a substitute teacher for their last period class. She looked a bit overwhelmed when facing the class. She told them that they could use the time as a personal study period and she sat down at the teacher’s desk and began to read. Some of the guys took turns sneaking out of the room, messing around a bit, and then sneaking back into class. There were two doors to the classroom and the substitute was up front by one of the doors, and Frankie and Zach were sitting in the back row nearest the other door. Zach was keeping record of the times to see who had the courage to stay out of the room the longest._

_Dan Miller returned and walked by them and Zach looked up at the clock on the wall and shook his head. Barry Silvers was still in the lead._

_Zach leaned over and whispered, “Go on Frankie! It’s your turn.”_

_“No!” Frankie whispered furiously. “I will get caught; I just know it!”_

_“No you won’t. You move so quietly, nobody ever knows you are around. Go down to the second floor bathroom and then sneak back up here. That will beat the record!” Zach looked up at the clock to check the time. Frankie followed his gaze and saw that the second hand was moving swiftly towards the twelve. He looked around at the others in the area near them and saw that almost everyone was watching him. Some nodded and one gave him the thumbs up sign._

_Zach tore his eyes from the clock and whispered, “Now! Go!” and picked up his pencil to record Frankie’s start time._

_Frankie darted a glance at the teacher and found that she was still engrossed in her book. He eased up from his seat and then hurried through the opened door. Once outside the room, he peeked back in to see if the teacher had noticed him leaving. She hadn’t. Frankie took a deep breath and let it out slowly._

_He crept along the hallway and at the end of it, took the staircase down to the second floor. He silently tiptoed past all of the classrooms on the second floor until he reached the boys restroom. He pushed the door open and was met with a cloud of smoke. Apparently someone had snuck a cigarette break in there and hadn’t opened the windows. It was stupid of them and Frankie imagined some teacher catching him leaving the bathroom that was filled with smoke and assuming it was him. He hurried over and opened both the windows as far as possible and felt the immediate chill of the early spring air as it rushed in. He had felt too warm in the classroom and had taken off his jacket and hung it on the back of his chair. He shivered and wished he had kept it on._

_Frankie loved that jacket. He had gotten it for his birthday. It was dark brown suede, the color of melted semi-sweet chocolate, and it was tailored to fit him. It made him feel like an adult when he wore it._

_He eased open the door and peeked out. There was nobody around so he stepped out of the restroom and glided silently down the hall. He went back up the stairs to the third floor and quietly moved towards his classroom. He stopped when he got close enough to peek in and he saw that the teacher was still sitting at the desk in the front of the room reading her book. Zach had leaned back in his seat and was peeking out into the hall. He grinned at Frankie and nodded, which Frankie took to mean that he had beaten Barry’s record. He decided to make it official by going to the water fountain and spent some time getting a drink. He was walking back into the room when Bobby Clawson ran out with his hand over his mouth. Frankie jumped inside the door to avoid the possibility of getting puked on._

_Everyone in the class, including the teacher, had been alerted to Bobby’s exit. Frankie gulped and headed towards his chair, and then he saw it. His beloved jacket was lying on the floor and a puddle of vomit was on it. He gasped when he saw it. He looked around and saw that Zach had turned in the opposite direction and was studying the wall. Frankie could hear some of the kids around them making small noises as they tried to hold back their laughter._

_The teacher, who had been pulled out of her book by Bobby’s sudden departure from the room, walked down the aisle to Frankie’s desk. “What is it? Why are you not in your seat?”_

_Frankie leaned over, and using a pinching motion with his thumb and index finger, he grabbed a clean spot on his jacket and picked it up from the floor. The vomit dropped off of it in one solid piece. It was a novelty item made from plastic._

_Frankie noticed that under his jacket were several sheets of notebook paper that had been placed there to protect his jacket from touching the floor and getting dirty. He shot a glance at Zach who was still sitting with his head turned away, studying the wall._

_When the plastic puke slid off his jacket and hit the floor, the class started laughing. The teacher was not amused as she bent over and picked it up. She examined it and then glared at Frankie. “What kind of tomfoolery is this?”_

_Frankie stared at her dumbfounded. Aside from very old movies, he had never heard anyone ever use the word ‘tomfoolery’._

_“Where were you? Why were you not in your seat?” she glanced at the open door and then looked back at him with her brows coming together to form a frown of suspicion._

_“He was throwing away a piece of paper. Geez! We are allowed to use the trashcans in this class!” Zach said turning away from the wall to give them his full attention._

_“I see! So you,” she said, pointing to Zach, “And you,” said while pointing at Frankie, “And the other boy who ran out of here, decided to stir up a bit of hijinks! Well…we will let the Principal sort this out!” She pulled a small pad of hall passes from her pocket and took a pen from the top of Frankie’s desk. She laid the plastic puke on Frankie’s desk so that she could write. “What is your name?” she sternly demanded of Zach._

_“Ed Norton,” he replied._

_She wrote it down and then looked at Frankie, “And yours?”_

_“Uh…Ralph…Lauren,” Frankie said, feeling his face flush. He could see that the other students were watching and most of them were laughing._

_“And the other one…the one that ran out…what is his name?” she demanded of Frankie._

_“William Wales,” he answered._

_She wrote the name on the pad, ripped off the page, and handed it to Frankie. “You are to go directly to the office. Gather up your belongings because I will not allow the three of you back into this classroom.” She picked up the plastic puke and said while glaring at Frankie, “And this is mine now!”_

_Frankie bent down and picked up the papers on the floor as the teacher turned to walk back to the desk at the front of the room._

_“Uh…you still have Ralph’s pen,” Zach called to her retreating back._

_She looked down at her hand and saw it was still there. She turned around swiftly and threw it at Zach, hitting him in the shoulder, before it bounced off and hit the floor. There was a collected gasp from the other students, but Zach brayed with laughter._

_“Hooligan!” she hissed at him. And then she marched back to her desk._

_Frankie laid the paper on his desk and grabbed his jacket and books. He saw that Zach was about to say something else to her and whispered, “Don’t!”_

_Zach sighed and then nodded. He went to Bobby’s desk and gathered up his belongings and then stopped back at his own desk and got his stuff. Frankie waited at the door for him and they walked out together._

_Frankie waited until they were past the door before speaking. “Something is seriously wrong with her! Those words: ‘tomfoolery’, ‘hijinks’, and ‘hooligan’! What century is she from?”_

_“She kept my puke. Man! That is low! It took me two weeks to save up for that,” Zach complained._

_“Yeah, smooth move there, Ex-Lax! Now we are in trouble. It was a bad prank,” Frankie scolded._

_“It was a great prank, and you know it! And we are not in trouble. Ed Norton, Ralph Lauren, and William Wales are. We aren’t going to the office, we are going to find Bobby and take off.”_

_“We have to go to the office! She will check to see if we did.”_

_“No she won’t. She threw a pen at me and it hit me. Everybody saw it and she knows they did. That is against the law. She won’t mess with us. And why ‘Lauren’? I thought for sure you were going to say ‘Kramden’.”_

_“I almost did. But she is old and I figured she would probably know about Ed Norton and Ralph Kramden, so I changed it at the last second to Lauren. He is a designer.” Frankie explained._

_“So who is William Wales?”_

_“It is the name that Prince William used when he went to school. Royalty doesn’t actually have last names, so they gave him one based on his title.”_

_Zach nodded, “You are, and I know I say this all the time, but you are the smartest person I ever met!”_

_Frankie blushed and looked away. “Where do you think Bobby is? We have his stuff so we have to find him.”_

_“He is a smoker, so my guess is the second floor restroom. Did you go there when you snuck out of the room?”_

_“Yeah, and I opened the windows in there. It was so thick with smoke; you couldn’t even see the mirrors.”_

_Zach nodded and started down the stairs to the second floor. “You beat Barry’s time, by the way.”_

_“Well…it probably doesn’t count because I got caught,” Frankie demurred._

_Zach stopped at the bottom of the staircase and looked at Frankie, “No you didn’t. You were inside the room when you were spotted, and if I hadn’t had Bobby run out of the room at that moment, she would have never known you were gone. So you are the winner.”_

_Frankie walked past Zach and headed towards the restroom. “So how long have you and Bobby been planning this prank?” Even to his own ears, Frankie could hear that he sounded irritated._

_“I have been planning it for a while; I’ve been carrying that puke around in my backpack for at least a week. I asked Bobby if he would help right before you came back in the room. You aren’t mad about the prank, are you? I made sure that your jacket didn’t get dirty or anything.” Zach was hurrying along behind Frankie trying to catch up._

_Hearing that Bobby had been a last minute addition made Frankie feel much better. He reached out to push the door of the restroom open and he shot Zach a smirk. “I don’t get mad—I get even!”_

            Frankie remembered that they had found Bobby in the second floor Boys Room, sitting on the ledge by the windows and smoking a cigarette. They filled him in on everything that had happened after he had run out of the classroom. He agreed with Zach that if anyone was in trouble, it was the teacher.

            They left the school and hung out together in an alley about a block away. When the school buses arrived, Bobby left them to board his. Frankie and Zach lived near the school so they walked home together, just like they always did. When they returned to school the following Monday, their regular teacher was back. No one ever mentioned the incident. Even the few tattletale, teacher’s pets didn’t say a word. Frankie thought about that for a moment and realized he never saw that substitute teacher around the school after that. The thought occurred to him that Zach had been right back then. They might have broken some rules, but she broke the law. Maybe it was reported but her actions far outweighed anything they had done.

            Frankie couldn’t remember if he had ever paid Zach back for that prank. If he hadn’t, then scaring him in the haunted house could be considered payback for the vomit on the jacket prank. Frankie wondered if there was a statute of limitations on prank wars.

\----------

            Halloween came and went with no sign of a prank from Zach. After a while of waiting for the other shoe to drop, Frankie thought Zach had probably decided they were much too adult for things like prank wars. He put it out of his mind as the long, dreary days of November appeared and Frankie felt his homesickness growing stronger every day. He couldn’t remember a time when he and his family had been apart as long. If Ari hadn’t been ill then they would have been together after Frankie’s performance, or if he would have gone home for the four day mid-term break, he would have spent time with them and he wouldn’t be missing home as fiercely as he was. He tried to cheer himself with the thought that it would only be a short time before he would see them for the Thanksgiving break but even that didn’t lift his spirits much.

            Finally it was the last week of school before the break. His last class was an early one on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. He would have liked to drive home immediately after class, but it was Daphne’s opening night, and he wouldn’t miss it for the world. He had already told her that he couldn’t attend the after party because he wanted to get an early start in the next morning and she assured him that it was fine—she was great friends with the cast and they had already made plans.

            He woke up to the sound of the alarm on his phone that Tuesday morning and sprang from his bed, eager to get started on the day. He shivered at the coldness of his room and hurried over and felt to see if heat was coming from the vent. It was and Frankie was mystified. He glanced at his digital clock and saw that it was flashing. Then Frankie understood that the electricity had been off at some point but was now back on.

            He gathered up his clothes and hurried into take a shower to get warmed up. When he turned the hot water on it felt tepid, he jumped in anyway, assuming that it would warm up. It didn’t. It got colder. He realized that the electricity must have been off for hours.

            Frankie showered as quickly as possible and shivered violently as he hurriedly dried himself and put on his clothes. On his way to the kitchen, he checked the thermostat and saw that the temperature in the apartment had still not gotten close to its normal setting. Frankie guessed that the electricity must have just come back on right before he woke up. He looked to the coffee maker and was grateful when he saw that Mew had left some coffee in the pot and had left it on the warmer for him. Mew had an early schedule on Tuesdays and usually left the apartment before six in the morning. Frankie’s alarm had awakened him at nine that morning so sometime in that three-hour period was when the electricity had been off.

            He put some bread in the toaster and went back into his room to grab his books for class. He arrived back seconds before the toast popped up. He sat his books on the table, buttered the toast, and poured a cup of coffee. He took a big drink from the coffee and shuddered. He liked ice coffee and he liked piping hot coffee, but this coffee was lukewarm at most. He poured his cup out into the sink and checked the time on his phone. He thought if he hurried, he would have time to stop at a Starbuck’s on the way to class and get some drinkable coffee.

            He picked up his books, keys, and phone and placed the piece of toast in his mouth to free a hand to open the door. He opened the door and started to walk through it, when the toast in his mouth connected with something invisible. The toast flipped up and hit Frankie in the nose before falling to the floor, buttered-side down.

            Frankie stared at the doorway with a perplexed frown. He reached out his free hand and felt it make contact. He pushed and the material moved with his hand. Frankie grinned and shook his head. It was plastic cling wrap.

            He closed the door and sat his books back on the table. He cleaned up the toast and butter mess on the floor and then hurried to the bathroom to scrub it off his face. After his face was free of butter and crumbs, he noticed that the toast had ricocheted off of his shirt before hitting the ground. He pulled it off and got another one from his drawer and put it on. He took the shirt into the kitchen and poured flour on his shirt where the butter was to keep the oils from sinking into the fabric and then he examined his coat thoroughly for evidence of butter and crumbs. He didn’t find any traces, so he put on his coat, picked up his books, and got a small paring knife from the drawer. He opened the door and used the knife to make a big slit in the cling wrap and then tossed the knife into the sink. He stepped though the slit in the cling wrap and stood looking at it from the hall.

            Zach had attached the cling wrap with duct tape all along the door frame. The cling wrap itself was a much larger piece than Frankie had ever seen. It had to have been from a roll designed for commercial use, not household use.

            He set to work removing the cling wrap and the duct tape. He tossed it into the kitchen garbage pail. He grabbed his books and headed to the elevator. On the way down to the ground floor he found himself grinning about Zach’s prank. The cling wrap was fairly clever, especially since he had managed to find such a large piece of it so that it had no seams to give it away. Frankie was willing to concede the victory to Zach.

            The elevator reached the ground floor and Frankie stepped out and walked to the main doors. He looked out in the parking lot and the grin faded from his face.

            As he walked to his car Frankie decided that Zach must have gotten one of those jumbo packs of toilet paper and he had used every single square of it to wrap Frankie’s car. There was so much toilet paper on it that it only vaguely resembled a car. He ripped some of it from the driver’s side door so he could put his books inside and then he set to work ripping away the rest.

            It was obvious that Zach had thrown the rolls over the top and then rolled them underneath the car hundreds of times. It took Frankie a good long time removing all the toilet paper and when it was finally all off the car, Frankie saw that he had accumulated a huge pile of it next to his car where he had dropped it. For a second he was tempted to just leave it there, but his conscious got the better of him. He scooped it all up into his arms and walked to where the parking lot trash container was located. He stretched his neck to see over the pile of toilet paper in his arms and realized the container wasn’t there. He sighed and shook his head. Zach wasn’t making this easy on him at all. He imagined it would be a waste of time to walk to the trash container in the common grounds, he was sure that Zach would have removed that one too, so he walked around the building to the rear, where the dumpster was located.

            He placed the huge bundle of toilet paper on the ground at his feet and reached up to open the lid of the dumpster when he realized that the dumpster had been turned around and was flush against the wall. Instead of the lip to lift the lid, all he had were the hinges. He walked around it and had to lean far over to grab the lip. He couldn’t get much leverage on it so every time he pushed the lid, it would rise up a few inches and then slam back down. Each time it closed it sent a waft of foul smells—a combination of old grease, dirty diapers, and spoiled milk—into Frankie’s face. After about the fourth time, Frankie managed to get the lid to open all the way. He dumped the toilet paper in it and slammed the lid shut from behind to avoid the odor.

            He walked back to his car and sank into the driver’s seat. He checked the clock on the dash and saw that it was much later than he thought. He started his car and planned the route in his mind. If he stuck to the side streets, and if the line was short enough, he might still have time to grab some coffee at Starbucks and still make it to class before it began.

            He had only driven a few feet when he heard a horrible clanging-banging-rattling sound. He slammed on the brakes and threw the gear shift into park. He jumped out of the car and ran around it trying to determine what the noise was. He soon found the problem. Dozens of cans had been tied to his back bumper. Zach must have hidden them under the car so that Frankie hadn’t seen them when he was removing the toilet paper. Frankie examined the bumper and from a distance, even knowing that there was something there holding the cans, Frankie couldn’t see what it was. He picked up a line of the cans and held the binding against his skin. It was clear and he could see his skin through it. He tried to break it by pulling on it but it just held tighter and dug into his skin. He realized it was invisible fishing line.

            He went back to his bumper and examined the lines to see if they could be untied but Zach had knotted each line numerous times. Frankie searched his glove compartment to see if he had anything sharp to cut the lines with. He came up empty, and with a sigh of frustration, he turned off the car and ran back into the building to get a pair of scissors from his apartment. On his way back to the car, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked the time. He frowned when he realized even if he cut the lines and disposed of the cans super quickly, there was not going to be any time to stop to pick up coffee on his way to class.

            He looked up and saw Zach’s car parked next to his, and Zach was standing behind Frankie’s car looking at the cans with a huge grin on his face.

            Zach looked up and saw Frankie walking towards him with scissors in his hand, and he grin grew even larger. “Hey! Did you get married? Why do you have cans tied to your bumper?”

            “Haha. Very funny. Move so I can cut them off. I don’t want to be late for class,” Frankie said, trying to get around Zach.

            “I have a better idea. Trade me your scissors for…” he paused dramatically and reached into the passenger side of his car and drew out a cup of coffee and a small bag from Starbucks, “This!”

            Frankie eyed the cup and the bag suspiciously. “What is it laced with? Laxatives?”

            Zach laughed as he sat the cup and bag on Frankie’s trunk and pulled the scissors from his hand. He bent down and started cutting the fishing line. “It’s not laced with anything! I was pranking you, not trying to kill you. I figured with the electricity being off this morning, you didn’t have a chance to make coffee.”

            Frankie picked up the coffee and removed the top and smelled it. “Did you bring coffee for everyone in the building?”

            Zach peeked up at him and grinned, “No, it was only your apartment that was without electricity. Seems like somehow a breaker got thrown. I fixed it. It won’t happen again, I’m sure. I didn’t know how you take your coffee so that is black, but there is sugar and some creamer in the bag.”

            “I can’t use cream…” Frankie objected.

            “I know: Lactose intolerant. It is non-dairy, soy creamer. And the muffin in there is chocolate chip and I made sure there were no walnuts in it.”

            Frankie stirred in the creamer and sugar to the coffee and put the lid back on it. Zach finished removing the cans and gathered them up by the lines. He handed Frankie back the scissors and Frankie extended the cup in Zach’s direction. “You take the first drink.”

            Zach laughed. “There’s nothing wrong with the coffee, Frankie!” he held up his right hand, three fingers up with the thumb holding down the little finger, “Boy Scout’s honor!”

            “You were never in the Boy Scouts,” Frankie said in a deadpan voice.

            Zach gave a shout of laughter and then grabbed the coffee from Frankie’s hand and took a drink of it. “See? Nothing in there but coffee and whatever you added!”

            “How do I know you really took a drink? You could have faked that.”

            Zach blew his coffee-scented breath into Frankie’s face. Frankie scowled and drew back from him. “Good Lord! Did you eat some roadkill woodchuck on your way here?”

            “Just the hindquarter,” Zach answered and then reached in the bag and pulled out the muffin. He broke it in two. “See? Nothing in there!” He brought a half piece up to his mouth and took a bite. He chewed for a second and then opened his mouth to show Frankie.

            “You are quite disgusting, I hope you know that,” Frankie informed him.

            “Yeah, I know. And now you know everything is safe. You need to get to get to class; don’t want to be late!” Zach started to walk away from him, dragging the clanking, clattering cans behind him. He stopped and turned around. “Frankie, you’re not mad, are you?”

            Frankie had gotten into his car and was about to start the engine. He smirked at Zach, “I don’t get mad…”

            “I know, you just get even!” Zach finished for him with a grin and then turned and continued walking with the cans dragging along behind him.

            Frankie was almost at the campus when he had to stop for a red light. He looked at the clock on his dash and saw that he was going to make it to class on time without a problem. He had finished the muffin and was almost done with the coffee. He leaned back into the seat and thought about his crazy morning with a grin on his face. As he was replaying their conversation in his mind, he made a sudden, startling realization. When Zach brought him the coffee and muffin, he had made sure that the creamer was non-dairy and that the muffin didn’t contain walnuts. He had remembered that Frankie was lactose intolerant and allergic to walnuts.

            A car behind him blew their horn to alert Frankie that the light had changed to green. As Frankie drove on, he whispered to himself, “Zach remembers me!”


	10. Chapter 10

            Frankie arrived at the theater early that evening. He found his seat that was in a row that Daphne had reserved for opening night. Frankie thumbed through the program and felt Daphne’s opening night jitters by proxy. He had spoken to her a short time before she had left for the theater and he knew she was a bundle of nerves.

            People were arriving at a steady pace. Frankie seat was in the aisle seat and a few minutes after he arrived, two older women from the building arrived and they occupied the next two seats. Frankie only knew them from seeing them around the building, and aside from an occasional ‘good morning’, they had never spoken. They all introduced themselves and spent a bit of time chatting. Frankie enjoyed it. They reminded him of his Nonna.

            Right before the houselights began to dim, three more people joined their row. Frankie recognized the couple, the Hendricksons, from the first floor of the building. Mrs. Hendrickson sat down next to the ladies, and her husband sat on the other side of her. Bring up the rear of the group was Zach.

            Frankie was surprised to see him. Daphne had said there were others from the building coming to her opening night, but she hadn’t mentioned one of them would be Zach. He knew that Daphne had sworn not to throw them together again. Zach must have wanted to be supportive of her; just like Frankie did.

            The houselights dimmed and the stage lights came on. A hush fell over the audience and the play began. Frankie stared at the stage, transfixed and mesmerized. He had become friends with the performers and even helped some of them run lines occasionally. He knew this play as well as they did, but with the stage, lights, costumes, props, and make-up, it became magical. He got lost in the magic.

            At Intermission, when the curtain closed and the houselights came back on, Frankie slowly came out of his trance. He stood up and moved aside to allow the women sitting next to him out of the row. He sat back down and opened his program and began to read from it.

            “What’s so interesting in that?” Zach asked.

            Frankie was startled to see Zach sitting in the seat next to him with the rest of the row empty. “I was looking at William’s picture.”

            “Which one is William?” Zach asked, leaning over to peek at Frankie’s program.

            Frankie pointed to his picture, “The one that plays Gordon, Cloris’ husband.”

            Zach grinned, “I love that guy’s facial expressions! He doesn’t have that many lines but his face tells exactly what he thinks!”

            “Yes, he is a wonderful character actor,” Frankie said and then he added, “He’s also a dermatologist.”

            “Oh,” Zach said, leaning back in his seat and looking at the stage. “A doctor _and_ an actor! He didn’t have to choose.”

            Frankie felt his face grow hot. He hadn’t realized he had been so transparent.

            “So…are you thinking about becoming a dermatologist now?” Zach asked with a knowing grin. “That’s basically a 9-to-5 kind of doctor, isn’t it?”

            Frankie shrugged. “I never thought of it before.”

            “Sure—rashes, boils, acne. Probably wouldn’t get called out on many emergencies, if any. Nights, weekends, holidays—all free to do other things. Definitely something to think about.”

            Again Frankie shrugged. “There are probably other specialties with regular office hours only. And yeah, I think I might do some research on them.”

            Zach sighed. “Good! I’m glad. I would hate for you to have to give up the stage. You were born for it.”

            The women arrived back at the row and Frankie stood to let them back into their seats. Zach had also returned to his seat before Frankie had a chance to ask him what he meant by that. Frankie sat back down and thought about it. Zach had linked being a doctor with being an actor, and said that Frankie was born it. But Daphne had brought Zach to the performance center to hear Frankie sing. In the past, Zach had been to all kinds of Frankie’s performances—singing, dancing, and acting, but not in the present. Frankie knew Zach had to have been referring to the past.

            The second half of the play began and once again, Frankie lost himself in the magic. When the final curtain fell and the houselights came on, Frankie slowly came aware of his surroundings. He felt as if he were awakening from a dream.

            Most of the people in his area had already headed for the exit doors. He moved aside and allowed the ladies to get out of the row and noticed that the Hendricksons were walking up the aisle on the other side of the row, headed towards the exit. Zach was nowhere in sight.

            Frankie took his time leaving the theater and walking to his car. He knew from experience it would take the performers a bit of time to change back into their regular clothes and remove the stage make-up.

            He opened his trunk and removed the roses he had bought for Daphne. He closed the trunk and then walked back to the stage door area. The Hendricksons and the two ladies from Frankie’s row were already there in the midst of a small crowd that had gathered. There was no sign of Zach so Frankie assumed he had already gone back to the apartment building.

            When the actors exited they received rounds of applause from the bystanders. It took a while for Daphne to appear and as soon as she did, she was swarmed by people wanting to take a picture with her and get her autograph. Frankie caught her eye and gave her a huge smile. Daphne was glowing and Frankie was happy to see it. He waited patiently for his turn to speak to her. When the crowd moved on to the next person, Daphne spoke to her guests from the apartment building, giving them the information about the after party. Finally she moved to Frankie and he presented her with the roses. She grabbed him in a big hug.

            “This night has been perfect, and I owe it all to you,” she said.

            “Nope! You owe it all to yourself. I am so happy for you and so proud of how well you did!”

            “I am going to miss you at the after party, but I understand why you can’t come.”

            “Yes, I have to be on the road at the crack of dawn or my mother will skin me alive,” he laughed. “And you are sure that you will have somewhere to go for Thanksgiving, right?”

            “Yep, we are all getting together early in the morning on Thanksgiving at Alicia’s house. We are going to watch the parade and everybody is going to help with the cooking. And later, football…pretty much like everyone else’s Thanksgiving. When will you be back? Sunday?” she asked.

            Frankie nodded. “Probably not until fairly late in the evening though. I like to spend every moment there that I can.”

            Daphne bit the edge of her lip and looked around quickly to see if anyone was nearby. Finding that no one was, she leaned in and spoke quietly. “I need some advice. Do you mind?”

            Frankie shook his head ‘no’. “Sure, I am willing to help if I can.”

            Daphne peeked around again and then leaned in closer, “It’s William. He’s asked me to dinner for tomorrow night. Just the two of us. I don’t know what to answer.”

            “Do you want to go to dinner with him?”

            “I’m not…I’m not sure. I like William, but…I am afraid it would hurt Donald,” she whispered.

            “Daphne, if it had been you who had passed and Donald was still here, would you want him to stay home, alone, for the rest of his life?” Frankie whispered back.

            Daphne shook her head, “No, staring at the same four walls, eating alone, no one to talk to—I wouldn’t wish that on anybody, most especially not him!”

            “I am sure he feels the same way about you. No one could ever replace Donald in your heart, but that doesn’t mean that you have to give up on life.”

            She gave him a quick squeeze and then let go of him. “Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! And be careful driving. You have a bit of a lead foot sometimes.”

            “Hey!” Frankie objected with a smile.

            Daphne laughed and then turned to leave.

            “So what is your answer going to be?” Frankie asked softly before she was out of earshot.

            Daphne turned around and smiled. Her cheeks flushed and then she nodded with a giggle.

            Frankie grinned and nodded back. He waited until she had rejoined her friends before going to his car.

            On the way back to his apartment, he decided to stop at his favorite little Italian restaurant for a quick dinner. He still had to pack for the trip home so he could leave early the next morning. He might have exaggerated a bit about his mom skinning him alive if he didn’t make it home in the morning, but not by much. She had made plans for them and she did like to keep to a schedule.

            The parking lot was almost empty, which wasn’t surprising since it was a Tuesday evening. Frankie drove to a spot in the front row and parked. He only had to walk a few feet to the front door.

            When he entered, a little bell above the door jingled. A customer standing at the counter turned at the sound. It was Zach.

            “Hi!” Frankie said, slightly taken aback. “I didn’t see your car in the parking lot.”

            “No. I rode to the play with the Hendricksons and they went to the after party so I hopped on the bus. I got off here to grab a couple of slices of pizza and then I am going to catch the next bus back to the apartment.”

            “Oh. Well, I’m planning on having a quick dinner and then going back to the apartment. If you want to join me, I will be glad to give you a ride home,” Frankie offered.

            “Nah, that’s okay. Thanks though!”

            Frankie shrugged and then walked into the dining room and selected a table in the back. He picked up the menu and began to read the selections. Whenever he came to the restaurant, which was fairly often, he liked to try something different than the time before. He had already tried most of the selections on the first half of the entrée menu.

            Frankie felt the table give a tiny shake as the chair across from him was pulled out. He looked up to find Zach in the process of sitting down. Zach saw that he had Frankie’s attention and said, “All they had ready to go was some vegan pizza. Cauliflower crust, with either kale or kelp—not sure which they said, and covered in vegan cheese. What the hell is vegan cheese?”

            Frankie laughed. “I’m not sure.”

            “I don’t want to find out. So if your offer is still good…”

            “Of course!” Frankie assured him and then went back to reading the menu.

            Zach reached over and got a menu for himself. “I get pizza from here a lot. It’s my favorite, but I haven’t eaten anything else from here before. Have you?”

            “Yeah, I come here often. I am working my way through the menu.”

            “What’s their best dish?”

            “Umm…I don’t know,” Frankie answered.

            “Third base,” Zach mumbled from behind his opened menu.

            Frankie frowned, “What did you say?”

            “Tomato paste. It says they make their own tomato paste. Seems like they think it is important,” Zach answered.

            “It is. Most restaurants use premade canned tomato paste, which is a base in almost all their entrees. Here they make their own and that is why their food tastes better than other places.” Frankie went back to studying his menu with a puzzled frown. For a moment, Frankie had been certain that Zach had said ‘third base’. That was one of the things from the “Who’s On First” skit that they had kept alive as an inside joke over the years after they had performed it. Whenever someone said, ‘I don’t know’, their response was always ‘third base’.

            When the waiter arrived to take their orders, they both selected the fettuccine alfredo. After the waiter left, Frankie gave a small laugh, “I guess learning your opinion on how important it is that they make their own tomato paste will have to wait for another time.”

            Zach grinned, “You know we both ordered fancy mac and cheese.”

            Frankie grinned back. “I would love to eat something spicier but can’t do it tonight. I have to be up early to start for home. Anything spicy would keep me up all night with reflux. I am pushing it as it is with the cream and cheese.”

            “That just makes you shit like crazy,” Zach said with a nod. He looked around the room, “So, you say you come here a lot? Can’t say that I blame you. It feels homey. Smells like an Italian grandma’s kitchen too.”

            Frankie stared at Zach for a moment before looking around the room himself. “Yes, it does smell quite a lot like my Nonna’s kitchen.” Frankie couldn’t begin to count the number of times Zach had gone with him to Nonna’s house when they were kids. Nonna was very fond of Zach and he of her. Frankie felt puzzled. Zach had said he didn’t remember anything from that time, but everything he said hinted the he did remember. Frankie didn’t understand why Zach wouldn’t just admit it so they could talk about it. Instinctively he knew not to push Zach. Zach would close up if he did.

            “So you rode with the Hendricksons. I don’t really know them. Are they nice people?” Frankie asked when the silence between them seemed to be stretching out too long.

            Zach was about to answer when the waiter arrived with their orders. When he left the table, Zach said, as he picked up his fork and stirred the noodles around on his plate, “She’s okay. He is basically a walking asshole.”

            “Really? Why did you come with them then?” Frankie asked, gathering up some noodles on his fork.

            Zach shrugged, “My car is in the shop, getting the oil changed and the tires rotated. I was headed to the bus stop to ride the bus here and they saw me and offered me a ride.”

            “Are you going to need a ride to the airport in the morning? I am leaving for home pretty early and I can take you.”

            “Airport? Oh! No, I don’t fly to Florida on school breaks. I drive upstate to my uncle’s place. Our families spend every holiday together and part of the summer too. Dad insisted on that when we moved away. That is the main reason I came back to New York for college. I am not fond of flying. I’ve only been back to Florida once since I’ve been here.”

            The bite in Frankie’s mouth suddenly felt like a huge piece of cardboard and what he had already eaten gathered up in a ball in his stomach. Frankie knew where Zach’s uncle lived. He had been to Zach’s uncle’s house numerous times as a kid. It was about a half hour away from their hometown. Every holiday and for parts of every summer, Zach had been a half hour away from Frankie and never contacted him. He pushed his plate away from him.

            “So, are you looking forward to going home?” Zach asked, seemingly oblivious to Frankie’s sudden lack of appetite.

            “Hmm? Oh, yes. I am. I’ve been feeling really homesick lately. Lots of stress too. I can’t wait to decompress a bit.”

            Zach looked up at him and grinned, “It will give you time to plan out your next prank on me. I think it is fair to warn you that, unlike you, I keep the alarm set on my car.”

            Frankie smiled and shook his head. “No, I declare you the winner of the prank war. I would love to know how you obtained cling wrap that size though.”

            Zach grinned, “I have connections.”

            “You sound like you are talking about the mob.”

            “No, not the mob exactly. More like a gang. They wear matching aprons, plastic gloves, and hairnets. That’s how you can tell they are tough guys,” Zach said with a laugh.

            “Oh, I see. So they are like your campus cafeteria connections?” Frankie found himself joking back and pulled his plate back and took another bite or two.

            Zach laughed, “Something like that. And I know what you are doing, by the way. You are trying to lure me into a false sense of security so that I will let my guard down. Sorry, it won’t work. I am going to keep my eye on you. I know you are cooking up something big.”

            “The only thing big that will be cooking is the turkey, and I’m not in charge of that,” Frankie assured him.

            “My uncle and dad have a plan to deep fry the turkey this year. I keep sending them clips from YouTube showing deep-frying turkey fires and explosions. Seems to make them more determined to do it,” Zach said, pushing his empty plate away and picking up his drink.

            “Well now we know who you inherited that trait from,” Frankie quipped.

            Zach placed his hand over his mouth to keep from laughing and spraying out his wine. He gave a little shrug and nodded.

            The waiter stopped by their table to ask if they needed anything else. When they assured him that everything was fine, he smiled and laid the check down. Frankie snatched it up before it had much of a chance to make contact with the table.

            “No Frankie!” Zach said firmly. “Dinner’s on me!”

            “Sorry, my hand was on it first so it’s mine. Besides, I invited you to join me.”

            “You did ask and I refused, that nullifies any kind of implied contract.”

            Frankie laughed. “We are not in court so regular rules apply. My hand touched it first.”

            “Can we at least split the check?”

            “Are we ‘those’ people, Zach? The kinds who quibble over who had the cottage cheese verses who had the fruit cocktail?”

            Zach relaxed his shoulders and smiled. “No, we are not ‘those’ people. Fine, I’ll let you pay this time, but next time is on me.”

            “‘Next time’?” Frankie asked with a smirk. “Sure, the next time we come here for dinner, you get to pay.”

            “You don’t believe me, do you? We will come here to dinner one evening after the Thanksgiving break but before the semester ends and I will pay. Deal?” Zach asked, sticking out his hand.

            “Okay,” Frankie said with a shrug and shook Zach’s hand. “Deal.”

            Later, on the drive home, Zach stretched with a groan. “Wow, I am really tired tonight, and it’s not even that late!”

            “That’s what you get for getting up early to prank me!” Frankie playfully scolded.

            “Not to mention how late I stayed up last night stringing the cans together.”

            “It was an extreme prank, I will concede that,” Frankie said.

            “Not extreme, it was epic!”

            “I wouldn’t call it epic,” Frankie retorted.

            Zach laughed, “Only because it happened to you. Plus you know you could never beat it!” Zach said with a hint of a challenge.

            “True. I won’t even try.”

            “Yeah, I don’t believe that for a second,” Zach said. He reached over and picked up the pack of Juicy Fruit from the console that Frankie had bought earlier on the way to the theater. The last pack he had was losing its scent. “You know, I didn’t even know that they still made this.”

            Frankie looked over and felt a jolt seeing it in Zach’s hand. “They do.”

            Zach laid it back in the console and met Frankie’s gaze. “Obviously.” He turned to look at the stereo and reached over to turned it on. He gave a slight nod when he heard Madonna’s voice coming from the speakers. He leaned back in his seat and turned his head to look out the passenger window.

            They didn’t speak for the rest of the drive. Frankie assumed that Zach had fallen asleep. When Frankie turned off the main road onto the side street that would take them to the apartment, he startled when he heard Zach speak.

            “Daphne did very well tonight,” Zach said, turning his head to look at Frankie.

            Frankie smiled, “Yes she did! She was pretty amazing.”

            “She’s changed so much since you moved in. I have known her for three years and there were days before when she didn’t brush her hair or change her clothes. I suspected at the time that she sat in the same chair all day long. Now she is full of life! You did that.”

            Frankie gave a small laugh, “Oh no! She did it. She was planning on auditioning before she and I ever spoke.”

            Zach shook his head, “The first time I saw you, the day the laundry room flooded, I came there to give her the plumber’s bill and you came in from the other room, she was a totally different person than the one I had known. She has only gotten better since then. Whatever you did or said was exactly what she needed.”

            Frankie parked in his numbered space and turned off the car. “Honestly, it was all her. I just ran some lines with her and helped her with her gestures.”

            They got out of the car and Frankie locked it. Zach grinned at him, “Don’t you think you should set your alarm?”

            “No. The rules of prank wars are sacred. You cannot prank me again until I prank you. And since I have no intention of pranking you back, the war is over.”

            Zach laughed as they walked up to the entrance of the building. He opened the door and held it for Frankie to enter first. “See, I know this is a set-up.”

            Frankie was protesting his innocence as he stopped at the elevator and pushed the button. Zach continued down the hall a few feet. He stopped at a door and inserted his key. His door opened at almost the exact time the elevator arrived.

            “Have a good Thanksgiving, Frankie,” Zach said as he entered his apartment.

            “You too,” Frankie called. “I hope your turkey doesn’t explode!”

            Zach popped his head back out of his door and said with a laugh, “From your mouth to God’s ear!”

            Frankie entered the elevator and pushed the floor button. Now that he knew where Zach’s apartment was situated, he could understand better how their paths had never crossed accidentally. His door faced the elevator and he had a window that faced the parking lot.

            Frankie leaned tiredly against the wall of the elevator and unconsciously rubbed at a spot in the center of his abdomen. He still had to pack before bed, but first thing in the morning he was hitting the road. He couldn’t wait to get back home. He was having the worst bout of homesickness he had ever had, and that was including the time in pre-school when the dance students had an overnight field trip. It was the first time he had ever been away from his mommy overnight in his life. He had cried for hours. Still felt better then than he did at the moment.

\----------

            Frankie shifted a bit in his chair trying to get comfortable and looked out Daphne’s window to check the weather. He hadn’t planned to come back as early as he had, but there were winter weather warnings issued for all over the state. His mom insisted he go back early and avoid the weather. He had made it back shortly before it hit.

            He dropped his suitcase off in his apartment and had come up to see Daphne. She was delighted to see him and began talking non-stop about all of her adventures since she had last seen him. The local paper had given the play raves and since it had been published, every show had been sold out. It had been scheduled to run for another week, but because of demand, its run had been extended for five more performances after that.

            Her dinner with William had gone well. The cast had spent Thanksgiving together and she claimed it was the most fun she had ever had, and she and William had had lunch together on Saturday.

            She saw his attention had shifted to the window. “What’s it doing now?”

            “It looks like the sleet has turned to freezing rain. I wish it would snow instead. I hate freezing rain!” he complained.

            “So do I! Ice everywhere! It is terrifying. But don’t you worry; we do have generators here in case the electricity goes out. I’m not really sure how to get them going, but Zach will know.”

            “Has he gotten back already?” Frankie asked.

            “I haven’t seen him. But he is a sensible person. I think he probably heard the bulletins and is either back now or on his way,” she said and then frowned, “Is there something wrong with your stomach?”

            Frankie realized he was rubbing that spot in his abdomen again. He drew his hand away. “No, it’s nothing. I’m fine.”

            “Are you? I have noticed you rubbing that spot for weeks now. I am concerned.”

            “It’s just a bit of homesickness, that’s all.”

            “You just came from home, and you will go back for the winter holidays in a few weeks,” she objected.

            Frankie sighed, “Okay. I thought it was homesickness. It feels like a huge, greasy knot in the pit of my stomach. The only thing is…I had it when I was home too. I am beginning to think it is something in my diet that is not agreeing with me or something. I really don’t know what it is.”

            “You need to make an appointment with a doctor and get that checked. You know I am right!” Daphne defended before Frankie could say anything. “In the meantime, I have some nice peppermint tea. That might help, and if it doesn’t help, it couldn’t hurt!”

            Frankie smiled as she left the room to go brew the tea. As soon as she was out of sight, he sifted around some more in his seat and sighed. He was so tired but at the same time, he felt on edge and hyper-alert. He hadn’t been sleeping well. His mother had had their Thanksgiving catered and they had a Tur-duck-en for the main course. It was hilarious and it was something he had always wanted to try, but he found himself without much of an appetite throughout his visit. He thought maybe he had some kind of virus. He was shifting around again when Daphne returned with the peppermint tea.

            She handed Frankie the cup and he took a sip of it. It was surprisingly good. He thanked her with a smile.

            She sat down across from him. “How are you sleeping?”

            “Me? Oh, like a log, why?” he asked before drinking a bit more of the tea.

            “And you’re eating too?” she asked, ignoring his question.

            “Like a hog,” Frankie quipped.

            “Hmm. Interesting,” she said, tilting her head to look at him better.

            “What? Why are you looking at me like that?” Frankie asked with a frown. He felt a bit irritated. He thought it was because of his worry about the weather and he turned back to the window to check.

            A faint noise from outside caught his attention. He got up and walked over the window and looked out. Zach was on the walkway and had a barrel full of salt on a wagon. He was shoveling the salt out of the barrel and spreading it on the ground.

            “What’s so interesting out there?” Daphne called to him from her chair.

            “Zach’s back. He is spreading salt on the walk to melt the ice,” Frankie said without turning away from the window.

            “Oh good! I am glad he made it back safely! I can admit now that I was a bit worried about him being on the roads in this weather.”

            Frankie looked at her and grinned, “Yeah, I was a bit concerned too.”

            “You don’t look quite as pale now. Is the tea helping your stomach?”

            “You know what? I think it is!” Frankie said in surprise.

            “If two sips of peppermint tea helped imagine how much better you would feel if you drank the entire cupful! Why don’t you come finish it while it is still hot?” Daphne suggested, patting the table next to his cup.

            Frankie smiled widely at that gesture. It was a gesture that the character Cloris used in the play quite often. “Okay, sounds like a good idea,” Frankie agreed. He took one more look outside and then gave a hard startle. “Oh shit!” he exclaimed and took off running for the door.

            Daphne ran after him and caught up to him in the hallway. He was rapidly pushing the elevator button. The indication showed that it was on the first floor. “What is it?” Daphne clutched at her necklace at the sight of Frankie’s face.

            “Zach fell. It looks like he hit his head on the wagon.” Frankie looked at the indicator and saw that the elevator was just starting to leave the first floor. “Fuck!”

            He ran to the emergency stairs and started down them. He ran down the first four steps and then leapt to the landing. He repeated the process two more times until he was on the first floor. He ran out into the main corridor and pushed through the outside door. He started to run down the walkway where Zach had already salted, but found immediately that the salt hadn’t had a chance to melt the ice. He darted over to the grassy area. It had a bit more traction so he could run on it. He saw that Zach was sitting up with his back to Frankie.

            “Zach!” Frankie cried out as he ran, “Are you okay? I saw you fall!”

            “I’m okay, Frankie,” Zach called without turning around, “Go back inside where it’s warm!”

            Frankie ran in the grass until he was near Zach. Then he carefully made his way across the walkway and dropped to his knees. Zach had his hand on his face and he turned away from Frankie.

            “Zach! Are you hurt? Let me see!” Frankie demanded.

            Zach sighed and lowered his hand. Frankie could see a huge gash cut into Zach’s scalp on the right side of his head. Blood was running down his face and dropping off his chin to land on the ground. Frankie gasped and pulled his shirt off.

            “What are you doing?! Put your shirt on, it’s freezing out here!” Zach yelled.

            Frankie folded his shirt into a large square and placed it on Zach’s cut. “Hold it there firmly. Don’t move it!” Frankie ordered. He was dimly aware of his back being pelted with freezing rain but he pushed that out of his mind. “Where else are you hurt?”

            “Nowhere,” Zach insisted. “Just this little cut, that’s all!”

            “Any pain in your neck or your back?”

            “No. I’m fine!”

            “Zach, so help me God, if you do not tell me where you are hurt, I am going to beat the shit out of you!” Frankie threatened through gritted teeth.

            Zach burst into laughter, “That’s some bedside manner you’ve got there, doc!”

            Frankie glared at him through his wet hair that had become plastered to his head. He shivered from the cold and from reaction. Zach frowned and looked away, “It’s my ankle. I slid on the ice and my ankle rolled. That’s how I hit my head on the wagon. But it’s just a sprain! I’ve had them before.”

            Frankie heard someone call his name so he looked away from Zach and saw Mew trotting carefully over the grass. He was carrying Frankie’s coat. He left the grassy area and carefully walked over to them. “Here, put this on quick before you catch your death out here!” Mew said as he handed Frankie his coat. Frankie quickly pulled it on and shivered twice violently as his icy skin met the warm lining of his coat. “I saw Daphne was headed out here with it and I volunteered to bring it. She said to tell you that she put your keys and your phone in the pocket. She wants you to call her from the hospital.”

            “I’m not going to the hospital!” Zach objected.

            Frankie didn’t argue; he just glared at Zach for a moment before turning back to Mew. “Stay with him while I bring the car closer. I’m going to need you to help me get him into it. His ankle is hurt.” He turned to look at Zach, “And yes, you most certainly are going to go to the hospital!”

 


	11. Chapter 11

            Frankie did a penguin walk across the parking lot, with an occasional accidental slide here and there when he hit a particularly slick spot. When he reached his car he had to grab hold of the door handle firmly as his feet continued to move. Eventually he managed to get the door unlocked and he gratefully sat down in the driver’s seat. He paused for a second and took a few deep breaths. Then he started the car and drove up to the end of the walkway.

            He parked the car and reached over and opened the passenger door. When he got out of the car, he left his car door open too. He penguin walked back to Mew and Zach.

            He and Mew worked together to get Zach up and standing on his left foot while his right leg was bent at the knee to prevent him from putting weight on his injured ankle. Mew and Frankie got on either side of him and the three of them crept along the walkway to the car. At first Zach tried to help by giving little hops, but he came down on an especially slick spot and his foot slid. Mew and Frankie had to work hard to keep the three of them upright. They managed to recover and the rest of the time they dragged Zach along with them.

            They made it to the car and got Zach inside. Luckily, with the hurt ankle being on Zach’s right side, he was able to pull himself into the car using his left leg. As soon as Zach’s weight was removed from him, Frankie began to slide. Zach twisted his body and used his left hand to grab the front of Frankie’s jacket and saved him from falling.

            “Thanks,” Frankie said breathlessly. He had thought for sure he was going to be the next victim of the ice.

            Mew was making his way back to the grassy area to walk back to the apartment building. Frankie helped Zach with his seat belt and then shut the door. He penguin walked, with a couple of big slides, around the car, holding onto it the entire time, until he reached the driver’s door. He climbed in the car and shut the door behind him. His hands were shaking as he leaned over and opened the glove compartment that was in front of Zach.

            Frankie pulled out a stack of napkins from fast food restaurants that he had collected in there. He folded them together into a square. “Okay, that shirt is getting pretty soaked so we are going to reinforce it. Pull it down for just a second.” Zach eased away the shirt of Frankie’s that he had been holding on his cut. Frankie could see that it was still bleeding fairly steadily. He put the napkins on it and told Zach to put the shirt back on it and hold it firmly.

            Frankie gripped the steering wheel tightly. His windshield wipers were working hard to try to keep the ice from having a chance to build up on the windshield. He had the heat on and it was just starting to feel warm. He put the car into gear, and said with forced cheeriness, “Well, let’s do this!”

            Because he had pulled up to the walkway, Frankie had to take the longer, circular path through the parking lot. He drove very slowly to avoid sliding into any of the cars that were parked there, and even going that slowly, he could still feel the rear end of the car losing traction. A part of him was screaming that Zach was losing a good deal of blood and that he needed to hurry, but another part of him tried to remain calm. It wouldn’t do Zach any good for them to get into an accident or to lose all traction and be stuck spinning the tires on the road.

            He and Zach were silent during the slow drive through the parking lot. Finally they came to the exit. Frankie tried to stop before reaching the side street but he slid through it. He quickly looked to make sure the no cars were coming, and was thankful to see that his car was the only one in sight. He carefully turned the corner and started down the side street. It was in similar condition to the parking lot, but he drove in the middle of the street and avoided getting close to the parked cars.

            At any other time, driving the three blocks of the side street was a breeze. On this night, this short drive felt like they were spending an eternity trying to navigate through hell. When he saw the stop sign up ahead, the one where they could finally turn onto a main street, Frankie felt like he had aged ten years. He began to pump his brakes halfway down the block and did manage to get the car stopped level with the sign.

            There was no traffic in sight so Frankie carefully pulled onto the main street. It was obvious that the salt trucks had already been here and laid down a good amount of a salt/sand mixture and Frankie felt all four of his tires gain traction. He breathed a sigh of relief and reached up to brush his hair off his forehead. It had been plastered there from the rain but the heat from the car’s heater had caused the ends of his hair to start to dry. It had been irritating him during that long drive up the side street.

            “This shit should be fucking illegal,” he grumbled.

            “What? The freezing rain?” Zach asked. “If so, I totally agree. You should propose a bill to make it a law.”

            Frankie huffed out a small laugh. “So, how are you doing? Are you okay?”

            “I am embarrassed and I think this trip is unnecessary, not to mention extremely dangerous. It’s just a sprain and a small cut. I could take care of these things at home,” Zach answered.

            They were well over midway to the hospital when Frankie fished out his phone from his pocket and called the hospital. He requested someone be at the Emergency Room entrance to help them in.

            As soon as he ended the call, Zach had a fit. “All of this is bad enough, but now you want somebody to come and get me out of the car like an infant? It’s too much. I think we should turn around and go back home!”

            “Zach…maybe you are right about your ankle. It’s possible that you could just ice it and wrap it and it would heal. That cut is a different story. It has to be seen by a doctor,” Frankie explained.

            “Why? Is it really bad, Frankie?” Zach asked and Frankie could hear the panic in his voice.

            “No! No, it’s not that bad,” Frankie lied. “I think a stitch or two will fix it.”

            “No, uh-uh. No stitches. I’ll tell them to use the glue,” Zach said firmly.

            “Yeah. Okay. So a drop of glue, a couple X-Rays, and then we will be on our way back home. Hopefully by that time, this freezing rain shit will be over.” Frankie hadn’t taken any real medical classes yet, but he had a lot of first aid training. He knew that cut was much too deep for the glue, but he didn’t see any need in upsetting Zach.

            A few blocks away from the hospital they had to stop at a stop light. Frankie got the car stopped very easily. He exhaled deeply the breath he had been unconsciously holding. He reached over and took hold of Zach’s wrist.

            “What are you doing?”

            “I’m taking your pulse.” Frankie answered and then began to count. The light changed to green so Frankie released Zach’s wrist and went back to concentrating on driving.

            “Well? How was it?” Zach asked exasperatedly.

            “Strong, regular, and maybe a bit fast.”

            “What does that mean though?”

            Frankie shrugged one shoulder. “Seems okay. To be totally honest, I really don’t know shit from beans.”

            “That must make ‘Taco Tuesdays’ at your house an adventure!” Zach said sarcastically.

            Frankie burst out laughing at that. The closer they had gotten to the hospital, the better the roads had become. There were other cars traveling and they seem to be moving at a fairly normal speed. Frankie could feel the tension leaving his body while he laughed.

            Zach joined in and the two of them were roaring with laughter by the time Frankie pulled up at the doorway to the Emergency Room. Two orderlies hurried over with a wheelchair and whisked Zach out of the car and into the hospital within moments.

            Frankie drove to the Emergency Room parking lot and found that it had been cleared and heavily salted and sanded. He parked without a problem in the nearly empty parking lot and walked back to the hospital. At first he had stepped very carefully, but soon realized that it was unnecessary. Whoever tended the lot had also treated the walkway so footing was no problem.

            He entered the hospital and followed the signs to the waiting room reserved for the ER. He took a seat near the TV that was on. It was turned to the local news and the topic of conversation was the weather. Frankie watched as they showed the weather map and saw that it was starting to switch over to snow in their area. He felt relieved. The salt trucks very seldom went down the side streets, but he hoped if they received enough snow before their trip back home, the snow would give them traction. The scene changed as the newscasters began talking about accidents and power outages that were being reported.

            He heard the glass window that separated the reception area from the waiting room slide open. He turned his head to find the receptionist and a nurse looking at him. The nurse leaned out of the opening and asked, “Are you Frankie?”

            Frankie startled and felt himself begin to panic. The perpetual lump in his stomach seemed to flip over. He was afraid something was seriously wrong with Zach. “Yeah,” he answered, jumping to his feet and hurrying over. “Is something wrong?”

            The nurse gave him a reassuring smile. “We are having a bit of a problem with your fiancé! He will not allow the doctor to give him stitches unless you are in the room.”

            The receptionist scowled at Frankie and then turned to speak to the nurse. “He didn’t tell me they were engaged or I would have sent him back there. He just came in and sat down in the waiting room. I didn’t know!” She turned back to Frankie, “You should have told me!” and gestured for his arm. “I need to put an armband on you for identification!”

            Frankie gave her his arm and she snapped it in place. When he pulled back his arm, she slammed the window closed. A door opened next to the window and the nurse told him to follow her. He had to walk past the receptionist who gave him another scowl before she turned away.

            Frankie followed the nurse down the hall to Zach’s room. When he walked in he saw Zach was lying on his side, facing the door and a doctor was sitting on a little rolling stool on the other side of him. Zach held out his hand and Frankie hurried over and grabbed it.

            “They won’t glue it!” he said and he pulled their entwined hands up to cover his eyes.

            The doctor gave Frankie a small smile. “I explained that the cut is too deep for the glue to be effective, it has to be stitches. Seems like your fella has a bit of trouble with the idea of needles. I’m glad you are here!” He reached onto a tray that he had pulled up to the bed and picked up the suturing items.

            Frankie looked at Zach’s cut. They had trimmed away the hair from that area and the room was brightly lit so Frankie could clearly see it. It was much worse than he had thought it was when he saw it in the dim light along the walkway to the apartment. Frankie was glad that he hadn’t listened to Zach when he said he didn’t need to go to the hospital.

            The doctor started the first suture and Zach flinched. Frankie rested his free hand on Zach’s cheek. “It’s okay. It will be over very soon,” he said soothingly.

            The doctor worked quickly. Finally he pushed back the tray and stood up from the stool. He pulled his rubber gloves off and put them in the hazardous waste bin. The nurse took his place on the stool. “I have to wrap it now,” she told Zach. He let go of Frankie’s hand and Frankie stepped back to be out of the way.

            “That was a heck of a cut,” the doctor said. “I don’t think it will leave a bald spot in your hair. You probably won’t even think about it again until you get as old as me and you start losing your hair!”

            “How many stitches did you put in?” Zach asked as the nurse was winding the gauze around his head to hold the thick squares of it in place over the stitches.”

            “Twenty. Like I said, it was a big one!” The doctor answered. The nurse finished with the wrapping and left the room. After she left, the doctor finished filling out the form he had been writing on and said, “Someone will be down to take you to X-Ray for that ankle in just a few minutes and then they will bring you back here. I’ll be back as soon as we get the results.” And then he left the room too.

            When they were alone, Zach asked, “You aren’t mad that I told them we were engaged, are you? It was the only way they would let you come back here.”

            “No, I’m not mad. The receptionist was furious with me though,” Frankie said with a laugh. “If there ever is a ‘next time’ with this, let’s get our story straight before we get here.”

            Zach laughed, “‘Straight’ isn’t exactly the word for the situation.”

            “Haha,” Frankie said in a deadpan voice and then grinned at him. “So, you are really scared of needles, huh?”

            “Yes. I hate to admit it but yeah, I’m terrified of them.”

            “It’s okay,” Frankie said, moving to sit down in the visitor’s chair, “Everybody has something they are scared of.”

            “How about you, Frankie? What are you scared of?”

            Frankie absentmindedly rubbed the knot in his stomach. “I’m not sure.”

            “Freezing rain?” Zach offered.

            “Oh yes! Like I said, that shit should be illegal. I saw a bit of the news on the TV in the waiting room. They said that the freezing rain is turning to snow now. I’m so glad! I hope it means the ride home will be better than the ride here was!”

            “There is probably blood all over the inside of your car,” Zach said with hint of remorse in his voice.

            “I’m sure there is. I have some cleaning fluid, it’s supposed to work on blood stains, so I’m sure they will come out.”

            “I will help you clean it!” Zach said firmly.

            “What do you mean, ‘help me clean it’? You are the one who is going to clean it! We aren’t married yet so I’m not cleaning up your messes!” Frankie said in mock exasperation.

            Zach giggled and then the door opened up and an orderly came in pushing a wheelchair. “Did someone call for an uber?” They all laughed and the orderly helped Zach into the wheelchair. “You are welcome to come with us,” the orderly said, “There is a waiting room for the X-Ray department that is much more comfortable than this room.”

            Frankie agreed and he walked alongside Zach’s wheelchair until they reached the waiting room. As Zach was wheeled into X-Ray, Frankie went to the empty waiting room. The TV here was also tuned to the local weather. They had interrupted regularly scheduled programming and were going to stay on the air until the storm had passed.

            Frankie pulled his phone from his coat pocket and texted Daphne to let her know that they had made it safely to the hospital and to update her on Zach. She texted him back immediately and he could tell she must have been anxiously awaiting news from them. She was thankful that they were safe and urged them to be careful on their way home. She told him that it had been snowing steadily for a while and was accumulating. He glanced up at the TV and read a scroll bar on the bottom of the screen that said they were due to get between 5 and 8 inches of snow by morning.

            He settled in and watched the news reports. Several roads upstate had been closed and many homes were without electricity. He texted his mom to make sure they were doing okay. She answered and said all were safe there and they still had their electricity. She asked how it was at his place. He decided that the best course of action was to lie, so he told her that he was staying in and planning on studying for a while to get a jump on his lessons.

            A bulletin came across the bottom of the screen on the TV. A semi truck had lost control on a bridge and had careened into a bus loaded with students who were returning from a college ski trip. Frankie remembered seeing the notices for this trip and couldn’t remember what group or club it was that had gone. He thought maybe it had been for foreign language majors, but he wasn’t sure.

            Within a few minutes the story was updated that there had been some fatalities and numerous injuries. Ambulances and other first responders were on the scene. Frankie was still watching the reports when Zach was wheeled out of X-Ray.

            They went back to the room Zach had been given in the Emergency area, and the orderly assured them that the doctor would be in shortly and let them know what the damage was. As soon as the orderly left Frankie asked Zach if he knew anyone who had been on the ski trip. Zach couldn’t think of anyone. Frankie told him about the accident.

            Zach had Frankie get his phone from his jacket that the nurse had hung up when he had been checked in. Frankie sat next to him on the bed and they watched the news on Zach’s phone.

            “I see you are aware of the accident,” the doctor said when he arrived in the room some time later. “We are about to get hit hard with the casualties. Luckily,” he looked at Zach, “You were right about your ankle being a minor sprain. We can get it wrapped and you can be on your way home in just a few minutes.” He looked at Frankie, “I am going to send home some printed instructions on his wound care, signs to watch for in case of a concussion—I am certain he doesn’t have one but better safe than sorry—and a sheet detailing the RICE treatment for his ankle. He can take over-the-counter pain relievers if necessary.” He looked back at Zach, “I will contact the campus clinic about scheduling an appointment for you to get those stitches removed next week.”

            Zach groaned and the doctor laughed. “They will use scissors, not needles. You’ll be fine!”

            The nurse who had lead Frankie to the room earlier came in. The doctor located the printed instruction sheets while the nurse wrapped Zach’s ankle, he gave them to Frankie, and then he excused himself from the room. A few moments later another nurse arrived in the room carrying crutches.

            “I need to give you a quick demonstration on how to use these,” he said.

            “No need. I’ve used them before. I’m an old pro at it.” Zach took them from him and went across the room a few times.

            “Okay! I’m convinced,” the nurse said with a laugh. “But you have to be especially careful on snow and ice.” He went to one of the drawers and pulled out a bit of gray felt with a rubber coating on it. “This is to keep your foot warm and dry on the way home. As an added bonus, it looks terrible on!” He had Zach to sit on the visitor chair and he put it on Zach’s foot. He hadn’t lied, it looked terrible and they all laughed about it.

            Frankie gathered up the two bags, one that contained Frankie’s blood-soaked shirt and the other contained Zach’s right shoe and sock, and the pages of instructions and hurried out to bring the car up to the exit.

            As soon as he pulled up, the orderly pushed Zach out in a wheelchair. Zach quickly stowed his crutches in the backseat and slid into the front seat. The orderly gave them a small wave as he turned the wheelchair around and re-entered the building.

            “I am so glad to be out of there!” Zach exclaimed as he reached over to turn on the radio.

            Frankie had to turn on his windshield wipers to fight against the snow that was falling. The roads were much clearer now since the freezing rain had stopped and the salt trucks had made numerous passes during the time they were in the hospital.

            They had only gone a short distance when they saw the first of the ambulances passing them to get to the hospital. Frankie and Zach grabbed each other’s hand across the center console as they watched it go by.

            “Do you mind if we switch the station on the radio?” Frankie said, untangling his fingers from Zach’s and reaching for the dial. “I’d like to know what’s going on with the bus passengers.”

            Zach agreed and for the rest of the ride home they listened to the local station.

            Frankie felt himself growing tenser as he approached the area where he had to turn off onto the side street. When he made the turn, he found the street to be snow covered. It wasn’t nearly as slick as it had been when they left, but the snow was deep in some spots causing him to again drive slowly and cautiously.

            They finally made it to the turn-off to the apartment building and were both stunned to see lots of people milling about. Frankie saw Mew and rolled down his window.

            “What’s going on?”

            “We’ve all been taking turns shoveling and salting the parking lot and walkway,” Mew said, he looked around Frankie to speak to Zach, “How are you? Did they fix you up?” he asked.

            Zach smiled, “Good as new! Well, almost as good as new,” he corrected when he saw Frankie give him a scowl.

            Mew laughed and then said, “Frankie, if you want to pull up to the walkway, I can help Zach in while you park.”

            Frankie agreed with gratitude. Mew hurried over to the walkway and met the car as it pulled up. Mew got Zach’s crutches out of the backseat and then helped Zach out of the car and up to the walkway. Frankie had no trouble getting around the parking lot, so he was able to quickly get into his place and park the car.

            The parking lot felt almost normal underfoot as he stepped out of his car. He saw that Zach was still standing on the walkway. He was surrounded by the apartment residents who had been working since they left to make the area safe. Frankie hurried over to Zach.

            “We need to get you inside now,” he announced firmly, letting Zach and everyone else know he meant what he said. “You need to rest.”

            Zach grinned at him but then nodded. He thanked everyone for their concern and all their hard work, and then he used his crutches to make his way to the building. Mew was on one side of him and Frankie on the other, both prepared to help him in anyway necessary. Zach didn’t seem to need help though. He did quite well with the crutches.

            After seeing Zach safely inside, Mew went back outside to continue helping spreading salt on the parking lot. Frankie and Zach made their way to Zach’s apartment door where they found Daphne sitting on the floor. She had stacks of food containers lined up next to her. When she saw them approaching, she stood up and hurried to them.

            She reached up and gave Zach’s cheek a caress. Her eyes were filled with unshed tears but she had a huge smile. “I’m so glad you’re back home!”

            She turned to Frankie and gave him a big hug. “Those roads must have been awful! I was so worried! But look!” she turned and gestured to the food containers. “Everybody has been bringing down food for you! I’ve been making a list of who brought what so you can thank them later. Well, come on! We need to get this stuff inside and we need to get you comfortable!”

            Zach pulled the keys out of his coat pocket and Frankie reached for them. Zach laughed, “I can do it Frankie. Like I said, I am a pro with crutches. I have always played sports and sprains and ligament injuries are all a part of that.” He unlocked the door, stepped inside, and turned on the light.

            Daphne took the bags and pages of instructions they had received from the hospital from Frankie so he could carry in all the containers of food. They followed Zach into the apartment.

            As Frankie was walking to the kitchen area, he did a quick look around. Aside from the bed, nightstand, and the dresser with the TV on top of it, the large studio apartment was bare. There wasn’t even anything on the walls; there were no personal items anywhere. To Frankie’s eye, it looked like a motel room that thieves had stripped clean.

            Zach made it to his bed. But instead of sitting down immediately, Frankie noticed that he hurriedly put something in his bedside table drawer. Zach looked up to meet Frankie’s eye and Frankie grinned at him. Obviously Zach had been hiding his porn stash before Daphne could see it. Zach blushed and turned his head and Frankie knew he was right.

            It didn’t take Daphne and Frankie long to find places to put away the food because Zach didn’t have much in his refrigerator. He obviously wasn’t starving so Frankie assumed that he ate out most of the time. He could relate because he did too. The only times he actually cooked were when Candace spent the night in the apartment. He enjoyed cooking but he didn’t bother with it if it was just for himself.

            Zach sat on the bed and removed his coat. He turned on the TV to watch for updates on the weather and the bus crash. The death toll had risen to eight. Frankie and Daphne finished putting the food away and came in to watch with him.

            Daphne shook her head, “This is terrible! So many young lives lost. It breaks my heart!” She turned to Zach and reached over and patted his shoulder affectionately. “I’m so thankful that you’re home and safe. I am going to leave and get out of your hair now. I want you to promise me that you will do everything that Frankie says. He has the instructions from the doctor.”

            Zach grinned at her, “Okay! I promise.”

            She turned to Frankie, “He is going to give you trouble, I can see it in his eyes. If you need me, call me. I’ll come down and knock some sense into him!”

            Frankie laughed. “I think I can handle him, but good to know that I have reinforcements if necessary.”

            After Daphne left, Zach gathered his crutches and stood up.

            “Whoa! If you need something, I’ll do it!” Frankie volunteered.

            “I need to go to the bathroom. I don’t think you can do that for me. And since I am going to be in there anyway, I thought I would scrub off some of this blood and change into sweats.”

            “Okay. Where do you keep your sweats? I can at least carry them in for you.”

            They got Zach into the bathroom and Frankie went into the kitchen and prepared an ice pack. He also got a couple of Advil and a glass of water and took the items and placed them on Zach’s nightstand. Frankie sat down on the floor and rested his back against the wall.

            Zach eventually came back out of the bathroom looking much cleaner and much more comfortable.

            “Everything okay? You didn’t get that gauze wet, did you?” Frankie asked, springing up from where he had been sitting.

            “No, I didn’t get the gauze wet! This may surprise you, but I am a fully grown man. I am capable of taking care of myself, no matter what you and Daphne may think!” Zach said grumpily as he sat down on the bed.

            “Oh! I know that. Here, prop your foot up, I made you an ice pack for your ankle.”

            Zach got comfortable on the bed and propped his foot up on the pillow Frankie had placed there. Frankie carefully placed the ice pack on Zach’s ankle and then walked to the nightstand.

            “I brought you in some Advil and a glass of water. I didn’t know which cartoon jelly glass you liked best in your collection, so I picked Linus for you. I hope that’s okay,” Frankie said, struggling hard to keep the smile from his face.

            Zach took the medicine and the water from Frankie while his face turned bright red. “Okay, I get how it looks but those glasses are worth money and my mom was going to get rid of them anyway, so I brought them with me.” He took the pills and washed them down with a big drink of water. He handed the glass back to Frankie, “Shut up,” he said as he grinned and turned away.

            “I didn’t say a word,” Frankie said with a grin.

            “No, but you were thinking about it.”

            “Thinking is not the same thing as doing,” Frankie countered. “Would you like me to fix you some food? There is chicken, beef stew, some kind of dumpling thing, various casseroles…”

            “No,” Zach interrupted. “Nothing for me, but if you want something…”

            Frankie’s hand stroked his stomach were the lump was lodged; it was feeling bigger and heavier than ever after their trip to the hospital. He was beginning to wonder if he was developing an ulcer. “No thanks.”

            “Okay. When you leave, do me a favor and lock the door behind you,” Zach requested.

            Frankie smirked at him while scoffing. He moved back to his place on the floor and sat down. “I’m not leaving.”


	12. Chapter 12

            Zach laughed. “Frankie, I am okay. I can take care of myself, I promise!”

            “I know. But I’m not leaving. You should be monitored for 24-hours for signs of concussion. It’s kind of hard to do that for yourself.”

            “But what about school? You have to leave me alone then,” Zach challenged.

            “I’m skipping my classes and staying right here with you. There’s really no sense arguing about it; you won’t change my mind, and in your condition, you can’t bodily pick me up and throw me out.”

            “You? Skipping class? You have probably never skipped a class in your life!” Zach said in a stunned voice.

            “First time for everything. I noticed quite a few shirts in your drawer when I got you the sweats. Do you think I could borrow one? I am tired of wearing my coat,” Frankie said.

            “Oh, sure, of course.”

            Frankie selected a shirt from Zach’s drawer and took his coat off. He put on the shirt and then he removed his keys, phone, and his ever present pack of Juicy Fruit gum from his coat pockets and laid them on the floor next to the wall. He rolled up his coat, lay down on the floor and used the rolled coat for a pillow. He turned his attention back to the TV. The local station had resumed regular programming but there was a constant scroll running along the bottom of the screen with updated information.

            He was unprepared when he got hit in the chest with a flying pillow.

            “If you are staying here for real, you should at least be comfortable,” Zach said.

            “Can you spare it? You need to keep your head and your ankle elevated,” Frankie reminded.

            “I’ve got enough pillows, Frankie,” Zach said with scoff.

            “That’s about all you have then. You are very minimalistic, aren’t you? It’s hard to believe you have lived here for three years and all you have is a bed, dresser, nightstand, and TV. All this wasted space. I would love to have a place this big to fix up. I guess that’s not your thing though. And that’s fine. Minimalism is a statement too.” Frankie said, afraid that he might have insulted Zach.

            Zach laughed, “What would you do if it was yours?”

            “Well,” Frankie said, sitting up to look around. “First of all, I would put that dresser in the closet. It looks large enough to store it, although I would have to measure it to make sure. And once it was gone, I would add a couple of stools there so the countertop could be used as small table. Over there by the door, I think I would put an actual dining table, with a few chairs, in case of company meals, and could also be used as a desk when you have a project that takes a lot of space, you could spread out. Here in this middle section, I would put a loveseat or maybe a small sofa and a couple of chairs. Along that wall, I would get a TV stand and move the TV there. And I would add lots of pictures, posters, and things on the walls to add color. The bed and nightstand are fine where they are.”

            Zach gave a small nod and then smiled, “Sounds homey.”

            Frankie lay back down on the floor and covered up with his jacket. He had gotten a bit carried away, and he knew it. He didn’t think he would appreciate it if someone came into his room and told him how to decorate it. He was just turning his head to apologize when he got slammed in the chest with another pillow. Zach was getting out of the bed.

            “What are you doing?” Frankie asked, jumping up from the floor.

            “I’m coming down there too,” Zach said and grabbed his crutches.

            “No you are not!” Frankie said with his hands on his hips.

            Zach laughed, “Oh yes I am, bossy-boots!” Zach carefully sat down next to the spot where Frankie had been laying. He took the items that Frankie had removed from his coat pocket and moved them to the other side of him along with his crutches. He grabbed the pillow he had thrown at Frankie and placed it next to Frankie’s and then he lay down.

            “I don’t like this at all!” Frankie objected as he grabbed the pillow and ice pack from the bed. He came over and elevated Zach’s ankle and placed it on the pillow and then put the ice pack back on it. “You should be in your bed where it is comfortable!” he scolded as he pulled the blanket off the bed and covered Zach.

            “I am comfortable. Come on back down here. I want you to tell me more about what I should do to fix this place up,” Zach said.

            Frankie went back to his place on the floor and lay down next to Zach. “Yeah, about that. I’m afraid I sounded rude. I got carried away.”

            “No, I am interested. I would like to fix it up, I just don’t know how. Maybe you could help me with it. What colors would we pick?”

            “Hmm…I don’t know,” Frankie said, looking at the carpet envisioning different color combinations that could be made with it.

            Zach mumbled, “Third base.”

            “Am I crazy, or did you just say ‘third base’?” Frankie asked.

            “Both,” Zach said with a laugh. He looked at the TV and his expression grew serious. “It’s a shame that this is what we are watching. I wish it was ‘SpongeBob’ and we were in our sleeping bags. It would be just like it was.”

            “So you _do_ remember?”

            Zach took a deep breath and then looked at Frankie, “Of course I remember, Frankie. I remember everything.”

            “Then…why? I don’t get it.”

            “The lake,” Zach said simply.

            “The what?”

            “When I first moved away, I was a wreck. My life was in shambles. I couldn’t eat or sleep. It was really bad for a long time. One day I was feeling especially bad so I went on FaceBook. I had closed my account right after we left but I thought about making a new page, maybe reconnecting with my friends here in New York. I went to your page and saw that you were on vacation at the lake. ‘Best time of my life’ was the caption on one of your pictures. You were on a jet ski and you were tanned and happy. That really hurt me. That you could just…” he sighed, “It doesn’t matter.”

            Frankie sat up quickly, “It wasn’t real! When you left, I started losing blocks of time. Even now, I can’t remember much at all from then. It’s like—I would go to bed and wake up days later, dressed in different pajamas, and no memory of what happened. It didn’t even scare me because I didn’t care. I got up one night to pee and I heard my mom and step-dad talking about this vacation. They said that they hoped it would pull me out of myself or else they were going to have to ‘do something’. In my mind, based on all the horror movies we used to watch, I thought they meant they were going to lock me up in an insane asylum. Now that I am older I realize the probably meant they were going to find a therapist for me, which would have helped. Anyway, when we went on that vacation, I acted my way through it. They thought they had ‘the old Frankie’ back.”

            Zach sighed, “I think that must be really nice not to remember everything.”

            “It’s not. It sucks. It makes me feel insane. Daphne said she went through periods of time that she doesn’t remember too. She says it’s normal, but it doesn’t feel like it.”

            Zach looked at the TV and shook his head, “They were our age, ya know? They had no idea that today would be their last day. It makes you realize things. Frankie, why didn’t you call an ambulance for me tonight? Why did you drive me to the hospital?”

            Frankie was surprised by the change in subjects, “I never thought about it, to tell you the truth. But it would have taken twice as long to get you to the hospital if I had. The trip the ambulance had to make to get here and then the drive back. It seems like it was more practical the way it happened. Why?”

            “You risked your life to take me there on the icy roads. I wish you hadn’t. That could have been us that…”

            “It wasn’t us! We are safe!” Frankie interrupted.

            “When you were in the kitchen with Daphne, you saw me put something in my drawer. Did you see what it was?”

            “No, I assumed it was some porn you didn’t want Daphne to see.”

            Zach looked at the TV again and seemed lost in thought. “It could have been us. That keeps running through my head,” he shook his head and took a deep breath. “It wasn’t porn. I want you to open the drawer and see what I hid.”

            Frankie leaned back and pulled open the drawer. It was filled with all kinds of things, but Frankie saw it. He knew what Zach had hidden. He reached his hand in and pulled it out.

            It was a little plastic figure of a gorilla wearing a tee shirt. ‘Cousin Zach’ had been written on the tee shirt from a pen borrowed from the cashier in the souvenir shop at the zoo during a field trip in the fifth grade. It had been written on there by Frankie. “You still have ‘Cousin Zach’!” Frankie exclaimed.

            “Yeah, I still keep him on the shelf above my bed. I always have. I didn’t want you to know so I hid him. Now…now I want to tell you everything. Like, for instance, it is some weird coincidence that we are living in the same apartment building, but not a coincidence that we are in the same college. I was on your FaceBook page all the time. I saw what colleges you applied to, so I applied to them too. I told my folks that I didn’t want to go to school in Florida because I didn’t want to fly to New York for every holiday. They believed me because they know how much I hate flying. Anyway, I actually got accepted here before you did. The tennis team sucked so when I applied here, I applied for a tennis scholarship. When they gave it to me, I had to accept. Luckily you got in here too.” He paused and took another deep breath. “Right after I was accepted and found out that you were accepted too, I saw you again for the first time since I had moved away. See, whenever I would go to my uncle’s house I would borrow one of the cars and come back to our town. I would drive around and look at all the changes, and I would drive by your house about a million times. On that night, you were walking up the driveway of your house. I think you had been out and were just getting home. It was about five or ten minutes before midnight and I figured that was your curfew.” He paused and looked at the Linus jelly glass on the nightstand behind Frankie. “Would you mind handing me that water?”

            Frankie got the glass and handed it to Zach without speaking a word. He was dumbfounded by what he had just heard. Zach took a couple of big drinks and then handed it back to Frankie who returned it to the nightstand.

            “I’ve been to every performance of yours here. First seat in the last row. I choose that one because I can be the last one in and the first one out and I know that you can’t see me there.”

            Frankie shook his head. “I kept the same phone number for years. My FaceBook is public. I sent you a friend request and two messages on Messenger. I was happy to see you that day at Daphne’s and you treated me like a stranger. You even told me you didn’t remember me and didn’t want to speak to me unless it was professional. And the whole time…I don’t understand this at all. Just because I went on a vacation the summer after 8th grade?”

            Zach lay back on his pillow with a sigh. He reached over and picked up Frankie’s pack of gum and slid out a stick. He unwrapped it and put it in his mouth and balled up the wrapper. He tossed it on the floor. Frankie stared at it and watched the light from the TV reflected on a bit of the shiny side of the paper. For a split second he thought it was the sun shining on it and it was lying in grass that was too tall and needed mowed. He blinked hard and saw it was in a dark room lying on carpet.

            “Come on Frankie, you know why,” Zach said quietly.

            “No, I really don’t know Zach.” Frankie insisted. His eyes were drawn back to the balled up gum wrapper on the floor. He could hear basketball shoes meeting pea gravel. The sounds of someone running. Someone was crying. Who was it? He didn’t want to know. The knot in his stomach was twisting around and his heart was racing. He tore his eyes away from the wrapper and looked at Zach. “What is it?”

            “Because I was embarrassed, okay? I didn’t want to face you. I didn’t want to talk about it!” Zach said, his voice rising with emotion.

            “Embarrassed about what?”

            “Frankie! I know you know what I mean. Don’t make me say it!”

            Frankie broke out in a sweat and he began to shake. His heart was beating in triple time. “I don’t remember. I can’t…I don’t…it’s blank…it hurts…I don’t remember,” he was aware that he was hyperventilating but he couldn’t seem to catch his breath.

            Zach sat up quickly. He reached out and grabbed Frankie’s arm. “Frankie?” he asked and the smell of the gum reached Frankie. He looked down at Zach’s hand on his arm and he was struck with the weird feeling of déjà vu. He knew he had been here before, lived through it before, but he didn’t remember. He felt like the room was spinning and the lump in his stomach was moving around frantically. He knew he was either going to vomit or faint. He knew he couldn’t stop it so he closed his eyes and allowed himself to…remember.

_Frankie’s strength seemed to be leaving him so he leaned his back against the building for support. “It’s always been me and you. I can’t even imagine…”_

_“Don’t!” Zach said, reaching out to grab Frankie’s arm. “It will always be me and you, no matter what! Frankie…” Zach moved closer to him, “Frankie, I have to tell you this before I go. I love you Frankie, the real kind, not just friends. I always have, from the first day of kindergarten and I’m never going to stop loving you. No matter where I am or what I am doing, I’m still going to be loving you and only you forever. I’m coming back Frankie. I promise. I’ll be back!”_

_There was a tiny bit of powdered sugar on Zach’s lip from the gum. Frankie stared at it. Zach leaned in and kissed him and Zach’s kiss tasted like Juicy Fruit gum. Zach raised his head and stared at Frankie with tears rolling down his cheeks. The tiny bit of sugar that had been on his lips was gone. Frankie wondered if Zach had given it to him. Zach turned and ran away._

_Frankie watched as Zach ran away from him, towards his parents’ car. He could hear the gravel crunching as Zach’s purple basketball shoes struck the gravel in the rock garden and he could hear Zach crying. Frankie wanted to scream his name, to call him back, to beg him not to leave—but he knew that was not an option. Zach had to leave. And the only thing that Frankie could do was to watch him go. He clamped his lips together tightly to keep the taste of Zach’s kiss with him forever._

            “Frankie? What’s going on? Are you okay?” Zach asked in a panicky voice.

            Frankie opened his eyes and looked into Zach’s. He took a deep, cleansing breath. For the first time in a very long time, that large, greasy lump in his stomach was gone. “You told me that you loved me and you kissed me.”

            Zach let go of Frankie’s arm and lay back down. He ran his hand over his face and winced when his fingers made contact with the gauze that covered his stitches. He looked at Frankie and his eyes were filling up with tears. “I thought maybe you felt the same way. I hoped you did, and if you did, then I could take that with me and I wouldn’t feel so alone. But you didn’t say it back and when I kissed you, you didn’t kiss me back. I knew then that you didn’t feel the way I did.” A tear escaped the corner of Zach’s eye and rolled toward the gauze. Frankie reached out and caught it before it had a chance to dampen the gauze.

            “Zach, I was in shock. I didn’t have a chance to recover from the knowledge that you were leaving. My mind shut down because I was hurting so much.”

            “Okay, I think I can understand that. So, if it was a time when you weren’t in shock, and I told you that I have loved you every moment of every day since I first met you on the playground the first day of Kindergarten, what do you think you would say?” Zach asked in a low voice that was almost a whisper.

            Frankie bit the corner of his mouth for a moment and took a deep breath. He looked at Zach and he could feel the tears starting to pool in his eyes. “I would say that I always thought that home was a place where I lived, but I have learned that home isn’t a place. It is a person.” He reached out and touched Zach’s chest, right above his heart. “You are my home. You are my love, my light, my life, my everything.” Frankie felt the tears roll from his eyes and he didn’t fight them.

            Zach ran his hand across his face, wiping his own away. He looked at Frankie and nodded. “And if you weren’t in shock and I kissed you…”

            He didn’t get a chance to finish the question. Frankie leaned over and captured Zach’s lips with his own. Frankie moaned when he felt Zach’s arms come around him and hold him tight, and then Frankie’s mouth was filled with the sweet taste of Juicy Fruit gum. Frankie thought that Zach had been right that very first day in Kindergarten. It was the best tasting gum in the whole world.

\----------

            A few weeks later a notice appeared on the bulletin board at the campus:

ROOMMATE WANTED

A curse for me could be a blessing for you. 4 roommates out of 4 have found their soul mates while renting this room. Would you like to be the next one? Nice room with a quiet roommate in a secure building. No pets allowed. If interested, call 555-2835 and ask for Mew.

 


End file.
